


Maybe you can change me

by Me_Is_A_Funyon



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Acceptance, Alternate Universe - High School, Depression, Friends to Lovers, Loneliness, Other, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-06-12
Packaged: 2018-01-14 03:46:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 34,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1251583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Me_Is_A_Funyon/pseuds/Me_Is_A_Funyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico di Angelo had a horrible childhood. His life has been horrible since the accident. Now he's going to Olympus High, his half-sister's high school. There he meets many interesting people that actually accepts him. Still he doesn't feel quite right. Maybe this interesting kid named Leo can help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Reason

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So this is my first fix here. I hope you guys like it. Please if you think I should fix anything, comment them below. Just don't insult, thanks! Hope you enjoy!

"Let's go!" Bianca yelled from downstairs. "Coming!" I yell back, putting on my tie. I run downstairs and go to Bianca. "Finally Nico, mom's waiting in the car," she says while fixing my hair. Mom honks the horn and we go to the car. "You took a long time, I'll be late for my meeting," says mom. She was going to this thing for her work, I didn't really know what, but we had to go all fancy. "Sorry mom, but it was all Nico's fault," says Bianca. "Hey," I say, punching her arm playfully. She sticks her tongue out and turns back around. Mom starts driving and we leave to the meeting. When we get there, we are greeted by a bunch of workers. We get out of the car and into the building. It had a huge chandelier i the center, many fancy couches, some tables with Italian food. Some dude comes up to us and greets us. "Benvenuto di Angelo, la sala conferenze è laggiu," he says, motioning to the conference room. We walk over there and see many weird people walking around, fakes pretending to be royalty or something. I look at Bianca and I know she's thinking the same thing 'What are these weirdos'. "This is going to be fun," she says, grabbing mu hand.

After the meeting, we left the place to go home. "That was…interesting," I say. "I know you guys think was weird, but that's how I get my money to care for you," mom says, smiling. "We know and we love you for it," says Bianca. "Well I love you too guys, don't ever forget that," says mom. We drive for about five seconds before Bianca yells and all I see is white. That's it, I don't remember what happened after the truck hit us. I wake up in a white room with beeping machines. I look around and see that I'm in a hospital. I try to move but as soon as I try, every bone in my body hurts, letting me paralyzed. I had bandages all around me. I try to sit up again, but a woman comes to me and gently pushes me back down. She was dressed with a white dress and her hair up in a bun. She was blond with blue eyes. 

"Sit down, you might get hurt," she says.  
"Who are you?" I ask. She smiles and shows me her tag. It said 'Anna'.  
"Where's my family?" I ask. Her smile leaves her face and she lowers her head. "I'm sorry, they didn't make it," she says. She actually looks pained and really sorry. I feel a tear run down my cheek. I start sobbing quietly. She puts a hand on my shoulder and rubs it. "I'll leave you alone so you can think about it," she says and leaves the room. I think about everything, my whole life. Think about my happy life, now the two people I ever loved are dead. Why does this happen to me? This is not fair, it should have been me. They had beautiful lives, and I was just the weird kid that loves Mythomagic. I start crying loudly, bringing my hands to my face, even though it was painful. I cry until I fall asleep, dream about them laughing.

About two weeks later I'm released out of the hospital. I have no other family members, so I'm put in foster care. I went to many homes, but ended up running away, just to be found somehow and be sent to another house. I was like that for years. Five years to be exact. I was nine when that happened, now I was 14. I went to two houses per year, so about ten foster homes. I had changed completely since the accident. I burned all my Mythomagic cards. I wore black clothes with skull designs. I was very thin and was ghostly pale. My hair had grown more and I didn't have enough decency to cut it. I wore an aviator jacket that was a few sizes bigger than me and a skull ring. 

Some of the houses I went to were great, loving family. But I feared that if I got to close that something would happen, so I had to run away, even if it hurt. I wasn't the happy, geeky kid from before. Now I was the creepy emo kid that likes to cut himself. The one that didn't want to live. I've been bullied a lot because of that. Many people called me 'fag', 'loser', 'suicidal freak', and many more horrible things. That wasn't helping with anything. 

Juni came to me and pulled me aside to talk. "Nico, I've got great news," she says, smiling widely. I cross my arms over my chest and raise an eyebrow. "What?" I ask. "Apparently you have a half sister from your father's side. Her and her mother found out about you and would really want you to go live with them," she says. "Will my father be there?" I ask. She stops smiling and looks down. "No," she whispers. "Then yes," I reply, trying my hardest to smile. Juni always wanted to help me, she was basically my only friend. Even if it was her job, she still did it because she wanted to. She looks at me and gives me a small smile. "Nico, please, these people were really excited. Don't run away, try it. I promise you will love it," she says. It was hard not to say no to her. "Will I see you again?" I ask. She nods and pulls out a phone. "Here you go. My phone number is in there. You can talk to me whenever you need anything," she says, handing me the phone. I take it an thank her. 

After I pack up the next day, she takes me to my new home. We make it to this big house painted in blue. It hard a huge front yard and a pool on the back yard. In the steps of the front door I see a girl with cinnamon colored hair and hazel skin smiling widely at us. She looked about my age. I couldn't believe we were related, we didn't look alike at all. She was next to a woman that looked she was in her thirties, with long dark hair and same color skin as the girl. They were both smiling and waving. Juni parked the car and helped me with my bags. We walk to the girl and the woman sitting in their front porch. "Hi," says the girl, "I'm Hazel, you sister." She smiles at me and shakes my hand. "I'm Marie, Hazel's mom," says the woman, shaking my hand as well. "I'm Nico, but I guess you already knew that," I say. They laugh and shake their heads. "Nice to meet you Nico. You have no idea how long I've wanted a brother," says Hazel. I give her a small smile and turn to Juni. I throw my arms around her. "Call me when you want, I'll always answer," she says, smiling at me. I kiss her cheek and turn around. "Welcome home," I mutter to myself and go inside. I go up to my room and drop my bags. I look around and close my eyes. I promise myself that I won't run away from this house, maybe if I don't sees it now, these people are my family. I came here and I'm staying here.

This is for Juni, for Hazel, and Marie. This was for Bianca and mom. This was to prove to my dad that I don't need him. This is a test, and I'm determined to pass it no matter what. Even if I'm messed up, I feel like I'll be accepted. I'll change.


	2. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's go to the mall, today! -Robin Sparkles
> 
> Hazel has been watching too much How I Met Your Mother and has decided to go to the mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my first part and reading this one! I was re-watching How I Met Your Mother and one of the episodes was about Robin Sparkles so yeah.
> 
> I wanted to make this a happy chapter because the next ones won't be all pink and lollypops. Here ya go!

I wake up to the sound of the TV downstairs. Groaning, I get up and walk down the stairs. I smell something cooking in the kitchen and go to find Hazel doing breakfast. She was still in her PJs. It was some green Grinch long pants with a green long-sleeved shirt. She was singing with the TV. She has been watching How I Met Your Mother this whole week and now she's obsessed. She was cooking some pancakes. I walk up to her and touch her by the shoulder. She turns around and smiles widely. 

"Come on Nico, you know this!" she exclaims, grabbing my hand and singing. I try to free myself from her but she holds me insisting I sing. I finally give up and start sining with her.  
"Everybody come and play, Throw every last care away, Let's go to the mall today" we sang. I knew the song pretty well. I would never, not even for one million dollars, admit this out loud . I actually liked the song. It was catchy and I even downloaded it. When the song finally stopped, Hazel grabbed the remote and paused it. She got three plates and cups. She served the pancakes and some orange juice. 

"Thanks," I say, taking a bite from my food. I really love her cooking. I've been living with them for about a month now. They were really nice, which made me want to leave even more. But I promised myself I wouldn't, I had to move on already. The only people who had actually seen me laugh were Hazel and Marie, but apart from that I was always still serious. 

"You're welcome," says Hazel, sitting down next to me. "I know you downloaded the song," she says, smirking. I look at her and knit my eyebrows in confusion. She sighs and chuckles. "I checked what songs you had when I went to take a shower, and that started playing," she says. I give her a small smile and keep eating. Marie comes a few minutes later and starts to eat as well. 

"Mom, Nico and I want to go to the mall. Can we borrow your credit card?" asks Hazel. I nearly choke on my pancakes. "When did I say that?" I manage to choke out. "Sure," she says, laughing at my shocked face. They both look at me with a glint of madness. "You guys are scaring me," I say. "Buy new clothes Nico! Get you a haircut! Buy back to school stuff!" exclaims Hazel. "What if I like my style?" I ask. "Well you'll change it. I sent my friends a picture of us and I want them to be shocked when they see you," says Hazel. Her eyes were begging so I gave in. Hazel hugged me and ran upstairs to get dressed. After I finished I went up as well and got ready.

Since Marie had to work and Hazel and I were too young to drive, we walked to the mall. It was a big mall, with many different and expensive shops. Hazel led me to a place that said 'Bob's Barber'. They guy who was going to cut my hair was named, wait for it, Bob! He kind of reminded me of one of those things from mythology that I used to play with, titans. He sat me down and started to cut. He was a friendly guy, talking about almost everything. 

"My real name's Iapetus," he says. "That's a cool name," I reply, "but why Bob now?" "People used to make fun of my name. A nice man told me I shouldn't let them get to me. So he suggested I used a funny name and laugh about it with them until they stopped. I chose Bob. Eventually I ended up liking the name and got a reputation with it, so I didn't change it," he explains. We keep talking until he finishes with my hair.

"All done," he says, handing me a mirror. I look at myself and gasp at the change. My long, messy hair was now short, like the kind a decent surfer would use. My hair almost reached my shoulders before, now it was as high as my ears. Bob laughs and pats me on the back. I thank him and stand up. Before I walk away, he stops me.

"Take care of yourself kid," he says. "Will do," I reply, giving him a small smile. I go and walk to Hazel, who was reading a magazine.

"Done," I say. She looks up and clasps her hand over her mouth. She stands up and starts smiling, looking at my hair. "Wow Nico, you look amazing," she says. "Thanks," I say. We walk out and go around the mall looking for a good shop. Hazel stops me at a shop that was selling school supplies. We walk inside and grab some school materials, double just in case. After we pay, we walk to a store that was selling book bags. Hazel grabs one that's shocking ping with gems around it. I pick one that's black with a skull design. After that we go shopping for clothes.

We were at a shop were Hazel was trying a bunch of clothes and I sat there telling her if I liked it or not. Bootcut jeans, no. Skinny jeans, yes. Shorts, yes. Skorts, no. We kept on and on like that, until she finally decided to take skinny jeans, shorts, and some blouses. She insisted that I get some new clothes too, so we went to another store. I didn't change my style much. Black skinny jeans, black shirt with a skull design, a gray hoodie that Hazel insisted I buy, and some black Vans. She also bought me some black and gray beanies. After that, we went to eat in the food court. We ate pizza at Sbarro. 

"I want to buy some stuff for my friends," says Hazel, as we walk through the mall. "What would you get them?" I ask. "Well I already have stuff for everybody except Leo," she says. I remembered Leo, the only one I actually remembered from all of Hazel's friends. He stood out, out of all of them. "Get him a set to build rockets," I suggest. Hazel looks at me and asks to explain why that. "Well he likes to build stuff, so he'd be building a rocket. And he likes explosives, trust me he'll have some when the rocket launches," I say. "Well actually I said he makes explosives," says Hazel, laughing. "Then it might be dangerous, but still, that's what I would get him," I say. "When did you become a people expert?" asks Hazel. I shrug and we keep walking. Hazel takes my advice and buys Leo the Build-a-Rocket set. She took out her phone and texted him.

H: I got you something!!!  
L: What???  
H: It's a surprise  
L: You know I can't wait for surprises ._.  
H: Just know you'll love it :)  
L: Why are you so sure huh :p  
H: My brother decided what to get you  
L: How did he know what to get me? O.o  
H: I told him about you, and he said that it made sense  
L: Ok! I can't wait to meet your brother!  
H: Why is that???  
L: Is there anything wrong with wanting to socialize??? xD  
H: Haha no, just wondering. He's excited to meet you too  
L: Liar -_-  
H: :p  
L: Well I'm helping Pipes with something, text ya later!  
H: Byeeeee

"What did you tell him?" I ask. "That you're excited to meet him," she says. I roll my eyes and we keep walking. When we are finally done, we leave to go home. We had a bunch of bags, but our house wasn't far away thankfully. We arrived at the same time as Marie did. She helped us with the bags and we carried them to our rooms. We went downstairs to eat some food Marie had brought. It was Chinese. We ate and talked about what we had done during the day. When we finished eating, we all went took showers and changed clothes. Marie had brought some movies from Redbox. She brought 'The Conjuring', 'The Heartbreak Kid', and 'Ender's Game'. Marie and Hazel fell asleep sometime during the second movie. I kept watching them, enjoying the peace and quiet. 

Peace and quiet always gave space to think. I did belong here, with them. I still knew that something would happen in school. Call it a feeling. I didn't know if it would be good or bad, but I did know it would bring trouble. School was now a week again, and I hope that they would accept me as Hazel and Marie did. I'm ready, to be happy again. I just haven't found the right tools I guess. Someday that tool would arrive, and I'll be fine. Maybe it will happen tomorrow, maybe in 80 years. But it would come, and I'd be better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my second part! More will be up soon. Now I leave you to be my bunnies!


	3. Back to School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first day of school. Nico expects today to be a regular day, but boy was he wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nico meets Leo! Here you go, a long chapter. You better enjoy :p

My alarm wakes me up at 6 a.m. Today was my first day at Olympus High. Even though it started at 8 a.m, I decided to arrive early to grab my schedule and go around the place. I wake up and go downstairs to eat. Hazel had said she wanted to come with me and show me the place herself. I find her already putting the eggs in our plates. I grab a glass cup and pour chocolate milk. I sit down and start to eat with Hazel.  
"So you excited?" Hazel asks.

"I don't make a big deal out of school," I reply. Hazel rolls her eyes and we keep eating. When we finish she runs upstairs to get ready. I go up to my the bathroom and wash my teeth. Then I go to my room and change clothes. I put on my black skinny jeans, my black skull shirt, and my gray hoodie on top. Then I put on my black Vans and black beanie. Yes I know, I like black. I go downstairs and Hazel is waiting for me. She looks at me and smiles. 

"Let's go," she says, opening the door. We walk to school that was like ten minutes from our house. When we get there I was impressed. The school looked like and ancient greek temple, with all those fancy pillars and even some statues. I should have expected it, since it was called 'Olympus High'. We walk inside through the huge, silver doors. It almost looked like and elevator. The school looked normal from the inside, with long halls, blue lockers, and classrooms. We walked to the end of the hall where it said 'Main Office'. I opened the doors and let Hazel in. We were greated by the Dean, Chiron.

"Nico di Angelo? Nice to meet you," he says, shaking my hand. He leads us to a room at the end that said 'Mr.D'. We walked inside to find an old dude with a tiger-stripped shirt on. Apparently he was our principal. "Ah, Nick di Panjelo," he says with a fake smile on his face. "Actually sir, it's Nico di Angelo," I correct him. "Whatever, so Nick. Here's your schedule," he says handing me a blue paper with some letters written on it. I was dyslexic, so all the letters got mixed. I would ask Hazel to tell me later what it said.

"So that would be all. Hazel will show you around, now leave," says Mr.D, waving us off. I look at Hazel and she gave me a look that said 'forget him'. We walked outside and left the office. Hazel showed me to all my classes. She helped me decipher the words.

First Period: Mr.H-Construction Second Period: Mrs.Ath-Language Arts Third Period: Mrs.Aph-Chemistry Fourth Period: Mrs.Art-Gym Lunch Fifth Period: Mr.Z-Greek Mythology Sixth Period: Mr.P-Economics Seventh Period: Mrs.P-Science=Plants "Good! We have everything together, well except fifth period. I have latin class," says Hazel, scanning my paper. She takes me to my locker and we put my stuff inside. She shows me around school, and may I say it was huge. I'd still get lost, but at least Hazel was with me in all classes. Well except fifth period, but I'll manage. At 8:00 a.m sharp the bell rings and we all are told to go to class. We go to room #152. It was Mr.H's workshop. He presented himself and told us what we'd be doing. He showed us the tools and other basic stuff. He told us to get into pars, so Hazel and I got together. We were told to build a birdhouse. He explained the constraints and we started planning. We chose to make it for small birds and at the back no wall so that when put into the window, the people looking would see the birds inside. When the bell rang, we packed up and went to second period. Mrs.Ath, Language Arts. Mrs.Ath was really nice. She introduced herself and told us a bit about her. We would be learning mostly about creative writing. She was smart by the looks of it. She knew about every language you can think of. "Si può parlare italiano?" I ask her. She smiles and replies, "Se e parla molto bene." Everybody looks at me and starts whispering. Now I really want to be sucked by the shadows. I felt trapped, like if I was in a bronze jar, not able to breathe. Hazel looked at me worried and I told her not to worry, that I was fine. Mrs.Ath kept talking about the class. She told us to start brainstorming on ideas for a story. She told us that this story would be for the end of the year. It was half of the class grade. It had to be 20 pages long and had to be about change. I had no clue what I wanted to do, but I had the rest of the year so I didn't press the issue. When we were dismissed, Hazel and I ran to the gym, since we were at the other side of school. When we got there, Mrs.Art was already talking. We quietly went behind the students and sat down. It was easy since I usually blended in with the shadows. She talked about all the requirements for her class. She also mentioned we all had to be on a sports team. Hazel and I looked at each other, what sport would we do? The class time went by really quick and before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Hazel and I walked to a huge cafeteria that had many tables, each decorated differently. Hazel told me that each table was assigned. Luckily, all of her friends were together, and I was with her, too. We grabbed our lunch and went to sit down. In our table, there were already three people sitting there. There was a guy with tan skin, dark his, and green eyes. He had an arm around a blond girl with gray eyes. Just by looking at them, you would be hypnotized. And there was an asian kid with dark hair. When he saw Hazel, he got up and gave her a kiss. I'm guessing that's her boyfriend, Frank. "Nico, this is Frank," says Hazel. I look at Frank and he is smiling lightly at me, scratching his neck. He looked nervous to see me. "Don't worry, as long as you don't hurt her, you're okay," I say, stretching my hand out. He looks a bit relieved and shakes my hand. I saw two more people come. A blond kid with blue eyes that reminded me of Superman, and a girl with brown hair and looked like she had Cherokee roots. They both sat down and started saying hi to everybody. From their personalities, I guessed who was who. "So, you're Nico? You look so different!" exclaimed Percy, I think that's his name. "Yeah well I got a makeover," I say glaring at Hazel. Piper and her start giggling. "Nice to meet you," says Jason, shaking my hand. When I finally sit down, they all stare at something behind me. I turn around to look at a guy that looked hispanic, with curly brown hair and pointy ears. He had a huge smile spread across his face. I couldn't breathe. I started to panic. I don't know why, maybe I was getting sick? I couldn't tear my eyes off him. I stared at him, wide eyed. He sat down next to me. "Hey guys! How you doing?" he asks. They all smile and say hi. He was that guy Hazel was texting, Leo. I keep staring at him, I felt weird. He was so handsome. He was always smiling and laughing. He's so-wait what? I'm not gay, I don't like boys. It was just my mind playing tricks with me. I shake the thought off my face and keep eating. He turns around and looks at me. His eyes widen and jaw drops. I stare back at him, eyebrow raised. I snap my fingers in front of his face. He jumps back and blushes lightly. "Sorry, it's just, you're Nico? You look so different," he says. I still can't process he talked, but when I do all I can manage to say is, "Agh hm." "You look great man. Wow!" he says. I blush lightly and manage to cover it before anybody notices. "Thanks, you too I guess," I reply. He smiles and laughs maniacally. "Please no," I hear Piper say. Leo stands up and stretches the muscles he doesn't have much of. "Leo Valdez, Bad Boy Supreme. Super-sized McShiczzle. All the ladies love a bad boy," he says, winking. I bite my lip, trying not to laugh. He sits back down and starts eating. "So guys, does anybody have Greek Mythology with Mr.Z next period?" Hazel asks. "I do," Leo replies, "why?" "So you can go with Nico, that's the only period I don't have with him," she says. Leo looks at me and smiles. "Yeah I'll take care of your brother. I bet he's fun," he says. "Dreaming is good," I reply, a smile threatening to come. "Aw come on, then I'll teach you how to be fun," Leo replies. I roll my eyes and keep eating. When we're done, we throw everything away. "Let's go Nico, or shall I call you my apprentice," says Leo with a smirk. "Nico, or Ghost King," I reply. He looks at me and raises an eyebrow. Then he smiles. "Let's go Ghost King," he says and makes his way out the lunch room. We walk all the way to a huge class at the end of the hall, next to the office. Just being there made you feel like you were actually living in Ancient Greek times. Leo motioned me to sit next to him. I do and put my bag on the floor. "Hello, I'm Mr.Z your Greek Mythology teacher. As the name says, this class will be about all the myths from those times," says Mr.Z. "Seriously? I had no idea," I whisper to Leo in a sarcastic voice. He chuckles lightly and nods. The teacher told us a bit about himself. His wife was Mrs.H, something about house stuff. He then told us to pick a partner. Of course I went with Leo. "Ok so you and your partner will chose two gods. You have to do reports about them, the real stuff. Then both you and your partner make a fake story with your two gods," he explains. When he told us to start working, I turned to Leo. "I'm Hephaestus," he quickly says. "Hades," I say. He nods and takes out a notebook. We start writing about what we know. I remembered a lot from my Mythomagic cards. Leo filled three pages and I did six. He looks at me impressed. "How do you know so much?" he asks. I didn't want to tell him about Mythomagic so I just replied, "I'm that smart." He smiles and laughs. "You're cool, Ghost King," he says. We keep talking about the project, every now and then changing to random subjects. When the bell rang, we got up and exited the classroom. His locker was next to mine so we walked together. "You're awesome man. We should hang out more. Can you hang out after school?" he asks. I was going to deny but my dear mouth decided for me. "Sure." He smiled and ran to his next class. Before he was out of sight, he turned around. "Meet me after school at our lockers!" he exclaims. I nod and wave. The rest of the day was normal. Sometimes I would catch a bunch of girls looking at me and whispering. I heard some things. 'He's hot', 'I'm gonna ask him out', and 'How do you think he would be in bed?'. That one caused me to look and them to blush. At the end of the day, I went to my locker to meet Leo. "Hey," he says when he sees me walking to him. "Hey," I reply. We put our books away and leave the school. "Do you mind walking?" he asks. I shake my head and he smiles. "Good because I don't have a car," he says. We walk to a mall that was about 20 minutes from the school. We went around the store occasionally buying things. We saw some people from school but we didn't mind them. Leo was hungry, so we went to eat at Church's Chicken. Then we went to Ben & Jerry's to eat ice cream. After we had walked the whole store, Leo said that we should go to his house and work on the project. I was tired of walking, but thankfully his house was five minutes away. It was a small house painted orange, like fire. Leo opened the door and we walked in. "Mamá!" he exclaims, throwing his book bag in the couch. I put mine next to his. "En la cocina!" I hear a voice yell back. We walk to the kitchen and see a woman there cooking. Leo walks up to her and kisses her cheek. She was like a Leo in woman form. I stand there awkwardly in the entrance. When she sees me, she turns to Leo. "Mijo, who's your friend?" she asks. "That's Nico, or Ghost King. He's Hazel's brother. We're working on a project together so I thought we could work here," Leo replies. She looks at me and smiles. "Nice to meet you Nico, I'm Esperanza, Leo's mother. I didn't know Hazel had a brother," she says. "Well I'm her half-brother, from our father's side," I say, trying to give her my kindest smile. She smiles and lets us go to Leo's room. It was full of tools and smelled like grease and oil. "Sorry, I like to build stuff," he says, picking some stuff up. We sit down and talk about what our fake story would be. We decided to have them hating each other to death, and having to get along to be able to win a battle between one of the strongest titan. Kronos, lord of time. Leo's mother called us downstairs to eat. She had three plates of food set at the table. She had made white rice, pink beans, and grilled chicken. I took a bite out of it and immediately loved it. "Wow, you're a great cooker Ms.Valdez," I say. "Oh please, call me Esperanza. And thank you very much," she replies, smiling. After a while, Esperanza asks me why she hadn't known about me before. "Well, I was a foster kid. Hazel and Marie found out that I was Hazel's half-brother, so they took me in. I was there because…" I trail off. I look down at my place and feel my eyes tear up. I furiously wipe them and give her a smile. "It doesn't matter, but here I am," I finish. Esperanza looks at Leo and sighs. "Pobrecito, debio haber estado solo todo este tiempo. Leo se amable y nunca hagas nada que lo lastime," says Esperanza. I couldn't understand since I don't really speak spanish. "Mama yo no haria eso, el me agrada. Jamás lo lastimaria," replies Leo. I look at him and knit my eyebrows in confusion. He just smiles and tells me it's nothing. We keep talking about where I'm from and them. I tell them I'm italian and they say they were from Houston, Texas. When we finish eating, I gather my stuff and walk to the door. "Nice to meet you Nico, you can come anytime," says Esperanza. "Will do, I need to eat more of your delicious food," I reply. She smiles and promises to make food whenever I came. Leo came up to me and gave me a hug. I tensed then awkwardly wrapped my arms around him. I wasn't used to being touched by other people. When we pull away he smiles. "See you tomorrow Ghost King," he says, waving goodbye. I say goodbye and turn around. Right before I leave I hear Esperanza tell Leo something. "Te gusta ese chico, se te nota," she says. I see from the corner of my eye Leo blush and shove her gently. "Si, peru no digas nada," he replies. I wish I knew spanish, maybe I'd take lessons. I walked home that was about half an hour away. When I got there, I was greeted by two confused Hazel and Marie. "Where were you?" asks Hazel. "At a friend's house," I reply. "What friend?" asks Marie. I feel my face heat up so I turn around. "Leo," I say. "Great you guys are friends!" exclaims Hazel. She smiles and runs upstairs. "You like him don't you?" asks Marie. I look at her and blush. "Yeah," I whisper. She smiles and ruffles my hair. I walk upstairs and go to my room. I take a shower and change clothes. When I collapse to bed, I start to think. I like Leo Valdez, my first friend in school. He's nice to me and always making jokes, so that means it isn't awkward when I'm with him. Maybe this will pass, maybe it's nothing. I think back to this morning, when I thought it would be a normal day, that the problem wouldn't come yet. But I was so wrong. Today was not a normal day, and there was a huge problem. And that problem was a Latino elf called Leo Valdez.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why it shows everything in like one huge paragraph, but oh well, same story. Bye fluffy bunnies!


	4. Not Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything has been going great, until the bullying takes Nico to do something he hasn't thought about doing in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who makes an appearance? Clarisse and Octavian, the biggest bullies of Olympus High! This chapter may be triggering! Just warning you.

School hasn't been as horrible as I had planned. I've been here for a few weeks and nothing has happened. I joined the track team. I've become great friends with Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, and Frank. Especially Leo, we hang out everyday. This actually feels nice and normal. 

"Breakfast's ready!" exclaims Marie. I run downstairs and sit down. I eat the cream she made for me. Hazel comes down and seats next to me, Marie in front of us. 

"So, how's school going?" asks Marie. 

"Great! I got into the volleyball team, got all A's, and joined the TSA," says Hazel. "Good job Hazel, how about you Nico?" she asks.

"Nothing really. Got into the track team, my grades are A's and B's, well one A the rest B," I say. Marie smiles and takes a spoonful of her cream. "What about friends?" she asks.

"Everybody's great. Nico gets along with all of them, especially Leo. And Frank, he's not afraid of Nico anymore," explains Hazel. Marie looks at me and smirks.

"So you get along great with Leo. Do say," teases Marie. She was the only one who knew about my crush on him. I glare at her and stick my tongue out.

"Great! He's been helping me with some of my classes, and he's always working on some project with his mother, Esperanza. His mother is really nice, even a better cook than you Marie," I say. She gasps and puts her hand on her chest as if I hurt her. 

"Well then," she says, turning around. We all start laughing and keep eating. When we finish, Hazel and I walk to the door. Before I get out, Marie stops me. "Tell Leo to come here sometime, I want to meet him," she says. I nod and smile. Then I run to catch up with Hazel. When we arrive at the school, we are greeted by all our friends. I don't see Leo with them, but I say hi to everybody. Then two hands cover my eyes.

"Guess who?" asks the person. I turn around to see Leo standing there with his huge, teethy smile. "The Latino elf that's always bothering me," I say sarcastically. He nudges me in the arm and rolls his eyes.

"Well you love this Latino elf so shut up," he says. I feel the tip of my ears getting red. I'm about to answer when Jason and Piper come up to me.

"Can you come with us for a second, Nico?" asks Jason. I nod and follow them away from the group. They stop and look back at me.

"What?" I ask.

"Oh nothing. I wanted to say that your clothes look awesome and I was wondering if-" Jason starts but gets cut off by Piper. "You like Leo!" she whisper screams. My eyes widen and I blush. 

"H-how did y-you know?" I stutter. Piper looks at Jason and they both smile. "I'm the love expert from the group, and Jason's my boyfriend so he gets into this too," says Piper. I nod but then realize what just happened. I give them a deadly glare and they take a step back.

"You won't say this to anybody, or I swear I'll-" Jason cuts me by saying, "We promise you're secret's safe." I nod and walk back to the group. I walk up to Hazel who was talking to the others. When she sees me she stops talking and they all look at me.

"What are you guys talking about?" I ask. They all look at each other and keep silence until Percy speaks up.

"That, um, you are being great friends with Leo who is just about to ask you something," he says. Leo looks at Percy and puts his hands up as in saying 'What the heak?!'. "Yeah, er, what do you want to eat?" he asks. I look at him and raise an eyebrow. What were they hiding from me?

"Whatever your mom makes I'm fine with, you know that," I say. He looks at Annabeth for help. "Just making sure," she says. I look at Hazel who's avoiding me. "Well I'll see you guys later, I'll be late for class," I say, walking away. They were acting so weird. Hazel walks next to me and we go to our class. Mr.H gave us a grade on the birdhouses. Hazel and I got an A, since he had never seen that idea. We keep working on some other things he told us to do. Hazel does something wrong and gets hurt. They call Marie and she is taken to the hospital. I was worried sick, but I had to stay. I went to Mrs.Ath Language Arts. I explained what had happened to Hazel and she said that for today I could work alone or get into another group. I obviously decided to stay alone. Today was all about taking notes about figurative language. Then I went to chemistry Mrs.Aph. Today was the usual, her trailing off and talking about clothes, makeup, and love. I'm horrible at chemistry, so I was glad she's like that. Then I went to gym Mrs.Art. She let us practice if we were in a team for that sport. I just raced with some of the other students. I won every time, like I'm not used to it. Then it was lunch. I walked to our table to be greeted by Percy and Annabeth.

"Hey Nico! Where's Hazel?" asks Annabeth. "She had an accident in Mr.H's class, she's at the hospital," I explain. "She'll be okay?" asks Frank sitting next to me. "Yeah, don't worry," I reply. A few minutes later Piper and Leo arrive. "Where's Jason?" I ask. "He got in trouble in Mr.A's class," says Piper. "It was hilarious!" exclaims Leo. I look at him and notice he's sitting right in front of me. I laugh and tilt my head.

"Why?" I ask. "The class started saying that Mr.A was as hot as the sun, but they meant it as handsome duh," he says. "Is he?" I ask. "You could say that. Anyways some other students started saying that Jason was better. The class started fighting and then Jason and Mr.A went face to face. Mr.A is like a teenager that was smart so he's a teacher now, but that doesn't mean he's mature," says Leo grinning. I smile and shake my head. 

"Where's Hazel?" asks Piper. "She had an accident at Mr.H's class. Don't worry she'll be fine," I say. She smiles and sits down. We talk about nothing in particular. That's until I mention my birthday. The whole table falls silent. It feels tense, and I can't handle that. 

"What's wrong and what are you hiding from me?" I ask. They all look down. I look at Leo. "Leo!" I exclaim. He jumps a bit and looks at me. "Yeah?" he asks innocently. "You can't ever lie to me. What's wrong?" I ask putting as much force in my voice as I can. "Be strong," whispers Percy. He looks back down. I groan in frustration and get up. I walk away from the table as dramatically as possible. They all start calling my name, but I ignore. I walk out to the hallway and walk to my locker. I open it and put the stuff I used out of my bag and the things I need in. When I close the locker and turn around, I see I'm surrounded by a group of kids that look dangerous.

"Hey kid," says the blond guy with blue eyes. He's standing next to a girl with light brown, short hair and brown eyes. They look like the leaders of the gang. "What do you want?" I ask irritated. "So we did a little bit of digging about you," says the girl. She starts walking around me in circles. "You're a dark guy, Nico di Angelo," says the guy. "Octavian, you remember what his files said?" asks the girl. "Yeah I do Clarisse. You sir, have no family," says Octavian. "Yeah, you're adopted. Because you were the only one that survived the car accident," says Clarisse. I clench my fists and they all start to laugh. "The boy want to fight!" exclaims a guy with red hair. "How cute," says a girl with long, dark hair. "He's cute alright Drew, but he won't fight us. We outnumber him," says Octavian. "You shouldn't be alive," says Clarisse. "No" I grumble. "Yes, they both died and you lived. How is that fair?" says Octavian. "You should die," says one of the other kids. "Kill yourself!" exclaims another one. They all start punching me and I fall to the floor. They start kicking me and I can't do anything but roll up and let them hit me. Some of them spit on me and laugh. "We're doing you a favor. And deep down you know everything is all your fault," says Octavian. They all stop and look at me. My shirt is all torn apart, jeans all dirty. I have blood running down the side of my body and my face. "You'll rot in, what is it you'd call it, the underworld," says Clarisse and they all leave laughing. When they're out of sight, I stand up and run to the bathroom. I check myself in the mirror. I looked horrible, all beaten up. I splash some water in my face. I take off my shirt and look at my side. It was swelled up. Some things looked like just too much. I plop down on the floor and start crying.

After a while, I wipe the tears off my eyes and grab my book bag. I search inside for an old friend of mine. When I reach it, I take it out. I look at my black pocket knife. I hadn't used it in a long time. It shined and looked perfect. 

"Hello Mr.Razor," I whisper, looking intensely at the knife. I pull up my sleeve and inspect my old marks. They had been fading. I bring the knife to my skin and make a deep cut from my wrist to my bicep. Pain shoots through my left arm and it makes me smile. I've really missed this. I grab the knife again and cut through my old marks. I start seeing spots but that doesn't stop me. They were right, I shouldn't be alive. My mom and Bianca should be. Tears stream down my face. I feel weak but I keep going. This was fair. This pain, this is fair for me. I hear the bell ring and know that the others are going to class. I'd be late, but I didn't care. Heak, why not just bleed myself to death. I move to my left arm and do the same as I did to the other. When I'm done, I drop the knife on the floor. I'm laughing and crying at the same time. That's when the bathroom door opens. Leo walks in and when he sees me, his eyes widen.

"What are you doing?!" he exclaims. "What I deserve," I reply. He runs towards me and I see tears forming in his eyes. "Oh my god," he whispers. He tries carrying me but I resist. The last thing I see is Leo looking at me straight in the eyes and screaming my name before I black out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh I smell a cliffhanger! Poor Nico, what is he thinking? What will happen? Well I know but you guys don't so HA! Bye lovely bunnies! And is teethy a word? Well it is now!


	5. Forgive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico wakes up at the most unexpected place ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter erased and I had to start again, so I'm really sorry if it's kind of blagh :(

I wake up to the sound of crickets. I sit up and look around. I'm in a…forest? There's red flamboyant trees all around. There are a bunch of beautiful bushes with flowers and berries. I'm sitting under a huge oak tree. There's a lake at my left in the shape of a half moon. I stand up and walk up to the lake. When I see my reflection, I'm shocked. It was me. I had a huge smile, I was nine. I wasn't wearing black, and I had Mythomagic cards in my hand. I've changed so much. The sight of that made me cry. I heard a small laugh from behind me. I turn around and see a man standing there. He had blond hair and gray eyes. He was tall and muscular, though not too much. He was smiling at me, motioning to get closer. I stand up and walk up to him.

"Who are you?" I ask. He looks at me and smiles. "My name's Pahaliah," he says. I look at him and knit my eyebrows in confusion. "Isn't that the angel?" I ask. He smiles and nods. Realization was he over me and my eyes widen. "Wow," I whisper. He chuckles.

"Come, we don't have much time," he says. He starts walking to a trunk and we sit down. "What do you mean we don't have much time?" I ask. "You have to go through three trials. I mustn't talk about them. Just know that your fate will be decided," he says. "Please, tell me more. I don't know what to do," I say. He looks down and I follow his gaze. In my waist I had a belt with a black sword. 

"That is Stygian iron, you'll need it for the trials," he says. "Will I have help?" I ask. He smiles and grabs my shoulder. "You'll see," he says. We stand up and he observes me. 

"You're a dark one, Nico di Angelo. That's why your call is so urgent," he says. "Where am-" I get cut off because a hole opens under my feet and I fall down. I land on the floor with a loud thud.

"Ouch," I groan. I stand up and dust off my pants. I'm surrounded with huge walls. It's all so dark that I can't see anything around me. I hear loud footsteps behind me. I turn around to be knocked off my feet. I hit the wall and slide down. I quickly stand up to look at the creature. When my eyes get adjusted to the dark, I'm able to make out the figure. It had a lion head. The tail had spikes, it was a scorpion's tail. I see its tail move and before I know it, it hits me. Pain shoots in my left arm. When I look down, I see green liquid falling off. Poison. I remember this from my card game, Mythomagic. This was a manticore. I take out my sword and put it up. It strikes again and I slash with my sword. It yelps in pain which gives me time to think. I think back to my game. Three thousand attack power, +5 saving throws. That gives me an idea. 

"Poor thing can't even hit me with its tail," I tease. Thankfully the manticore apparently knows english and it tries to hit me with its tail. This time I jump on it. When it brings its tail closer, I jump to its back. I start climbing to the head. I take my sword and stab it at the side of the head. It brings its tail trying to hit me, but I dodge and it hits itself. I go to the other side and stab as well. I do this a few times, making it hit itself. I wanted to poison him. I don't know if it will work, but I can try. When I think it's enough, I jump off and land on my back. Even though it hurts too much, I stand up. The manticore is stumbling. I take this chance to slash across its face. Good news, I gave it a pretty bad injury. Bad news, it slashed with its paw on my shoulder. When I look, I see that it's left me with a deep cut. It was too busy with his injury, that I'm able to run around it and hide. It starts looking around for me. I come out of my hiding spot and try to charge. But then it turns around and pins me to the floor. It opens its mouth and I can see his razor sharp teeth. Without thinking, I raise my sword and throw it down his throat. The manticore starts to choke and I get away from it. I watch in awe as it disintegrates into nothingness. 

The walls start to lower and I can see light. I'm in a park full of families having a picnic, dogs running around, and children playing. I look at my arm and see that the poison is gone. When I look at my shoulder, I just have a big scar. It wasn't bleeding anymore. I start to look around for anyone I recognize. That's when I hear them. I turn around to find Hazel, Marie, Leo, Frank, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, an Piper sitting down in a blanket. Esperanza is coming with some food in her hands. 

"Nico come!" Hazel exclaims. I run up to them and hug her. She smiles and hugs back.

"I don't get one?" Leo asks, pouting. I turn around and hug him.

"You just went to the bathroom, Nico," says Marie, laughing. I didn't know if this was real or not, but I wanted to enjoy it. I sat down and we started to eat. We talked for a long while, about nothing in particular. When I turn around, I see everybody is looking at us. When I turn back I see that they're all being dragged away. I stand up and follow them, but am stopped by two guys. I try to go around them, but they just hold me back. Everybody starts to come and surround me. They all start growing long nails. Their eyes are now completely black. Their hair is gray and their smile is pale. I can see my friends and family about to be thrown off a cliff. Out of nowhere, my sword appears. I cut one of the monsters and it slowly melts. I go all psycho mode and start to cut. They melted by the touch of Stygian iron. I made a pathway and ran through it, towards them. The things started to come after me, but were held back by the ground opening. When I get to them, the things turn around. They were green and had blood shot red eyes. They had teeth as sharp as the manticore's and nails as long as the monsters behind me. 

"No saving them," says one. "Look, I've had a long day, doing impossible things. Trust me, I'll save them," I say. They hiss and attack me. I start cutting but apparently that just hurts them a little bit.

"Go! I'll hold them!" I exclaim. "No way! We'll help you!" screams back Hazel. I groan and start to fight, all of them helping. We're able to push almost all of them off the cliff. We all hug, thinking it's all over. That's when one of the things grabs Hazel's leg and drags her to the cliff. She falls down and the thing drags her. Just before she falls, I grab her hand.

"Go, you can't hold me forever," she says, trying her hardest to smile. I get down and drop next to her.

"What are you doing?" she asks alarmed. I stab the thing with my sword and it lets go of Hazel, taking hold of me. I push Hazel up.

"Nico!" she exclaims. "Go, it's okay," I say. "No, let us help," says Marie. They try to grab me but I tell them not to.

"It's okay. As long as you guys are safe, I'd die a thousand times," I say, giving them a small smile. They all start to tear up. I look down and let go. I start falling into the bottomless pit. It feels like an eternity until I see fire. It was getting closer. I close my eyes and fall into it. When I open my eyes, I'm in my old room, standing in front of a mirror. I'm wearing a suit. 

"Let's go!" Bianca yells. I run downstairs to her. "Finally, Nico, mom's waiting in the car," she says, fixing my tie. We get into the car, and I start remembering. This was the night of the accident. We go to the reunion, everything happens exactly the same. Then we leave and are heading home. 

"Well that was interesting," says Bianca. "I know you guys think it was weird, but that's the way I get money to take care of you," says mom, smiling. "We know and we love you for it," replies Bianca. 

"Stop the car!" I exclaim. They both look at me and raise an eyebrow. Then we receive the impact. When I open my eyes, I see mom and Bianca put their arms on me. I start to cry at the sight of my family's dead bodies. I get out of the car, everything hurting. I plop down next to the car, with my face in my hands. Then I feel a hand on my shoulder. I open my eyes and see Bianca standing in front of me.

"B-Bianca? H-how? You're d-dead," I say. She smiles and takes my hand. I stand up and follow her to the forest. There, sitting on a trunk, is my mother.

"Nico, amore," she says, standing up and hugging me. 

"I've missed you guys so much," I say. "We've always been with you, looking after you," says Bianca.

"It's not your fault, Nico. Nothing is," says mom. "You have to let go. You have to let us go and be happy," says Bianca.

"You have to forgive yourself," says mom. That word, 'forgive', always chasing me. Haunting me since the day of the accident. 

"I have so many questions," I say. They smile at that. "You'll find the answers to them, when you let go," says Bianca. "Can I stay with you guys?" I ask. "You have to be judged by Him, maybe you go back, you stay, or…" mom trails off. I know what she meant. It was more likely it would be that third option, since I had tried to commit suicide. 

"Be happy, Nico, can you promise?" ask mom. "It's hard," I mutter. "You have people who want to help you," says Bianca. 

"I'm not even sure where I'm going! What if I go to…" I look down, not wanting to mention it. They both come and hug me. I start sobbing into their arms. 

"I'll miss you," I say when I pull back. I start walking to the door in the cave. I look back at them once more. They mouth 'I love you', and I give them a small smile. I enter the room with a blinding white light.

And then I wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodbye fluffy bunnies! Tell me what you think below. I know it isn't great because I had to start all over again and my heart wasn't in it so much. And no, Nico doesn't have powers or anything. He just did that for the trials. Okay byeee :)


	6. I'll Be There For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico wakes up at the hospital, shocked. Leo just wants to help him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for what you're about to read. Not really haha. But be honest, who is simply mentally okay after trying to kill theirselves and seeing your dead family members, seeing everybody you love in danger, and face a hard battle? If you chose nobody, correct!

I wake up with a huge gaps. I look around and see that I'm surrounded by a bunch of nurses. When they see me wake up, the calm down and smile. A girl with dark almond eyes and cinnamon hair walks up to me. She has a doctor's coat on. When she sees me, she smiles.

"I'm Dr. Calpyso," she says. I just look at her. Her smiles leaves her face and she walks up to me, concerned. She takes her little pen and turns on the light. She starts moving it around my face. 

"Oh no," she whispers. One of the nurses walks up to her and whispers something in her ear. She nods and turns back to me. 

"You have some people eager to see you," she says, giving me a small smile. She walks away and motions to somebody to come in. All the nurses leave and so does the doctor. Through the door, Hazel and Marie come in. They both run towards me and give me a tight hug. They smile and kiss my cheeks. Behind them I see my other friends come in. They all look at me and sigh in relief. Leo comes in last, his clothes stained with blood. I'm guessing it was mine. Everybody makes way for him. He looks at me and his eyes widen. He sprints towards me and squeezes me tightly. He starts crying on my shoulder, my shirt getting all wet. I can't move or say anything. When he pulls away, he looks at me carefully.

"No, no, no. No!" he exclaims. Everybody looks at him in confusion. "This can't be happening to you Nico, no!" he keeps yelling. Piper puts an arm on his shoulder and gives him a reassuring squeeze. "He's in shock," he whispers, looking down. Everybody gasps and run up to me. They start talking to me, moving their hand in front of my face, and I can't do anything but sit there and look at them. Hazel starts to cry and Frank puts an arm around her. Dr. Calypso comes in and sits down on a chair.

"I'm really sorry, but Nico is in a state of shock. We're not sure what's happened, but we can't do anything about it. Maybe some therapy might help. It's all up to him. The question I get the most is 'Will he ever be the same?' and I'm extremely sorry, but that's up to Nico himself," she says, giving them an apologetic smile. "What do you recommend?" asks Percy. "Put him around people he cares about or that care about him. Just close people, like all of you guys. Try talking, do what comes to mind. Don't show sadness, he can't see that. Nico is a strong kid, anybody with his cuts would have died instantly. I believe if you just give him some time, he'll be okay," she says, giving us a reassuring smile. All of them sigh in relief and nod. 

"Thank god, thank you doctor," says Marie. The doctor stands up and leaves us alone. They all look at me and smile. 

"You'll be okay Nico, I promise," says Hazel. She grabs my arms and looks at them. She sighs and closes her eyes, blinking away her tears.

"Thank you so much, Leo. He could've died. You saved him," she says, standing up and hugging him. He sniffles and hugs back. 

"I care too much about him. I couldn't let him die on me. On anybody, he's too important to all of us," he says. They all nod in agreement. Esperanza comes rushing in a few seconds later.

"Leo, I got your call. How is he?" she asks. Leo looks down and explains everything. "Oh Leo, como lo siento," she says, hugging him. He hugs back and chokes back his sobs. 

"Well, um, you guys should go. School and work. I'll stay here with Nico," Leo says. "But you have school too," says Hazel.

"I really don't want to do anything but stay here with Nico,"he replies.

"Okay, well, we'll come everyday after school, until he can leave. We'll bring you the school work," says Piper. Leo smiles and thanks her. They all kept talking about what we would do. After a while, they were told to leave. Leo stayed and prepared himself a bed. When he finishes, he sits down and looks at me. His eyes start tearing up but he wipes them say and smiles. 

"You'll be okay, Nico," he whispers, and turns around to sleep. I also fall back and go to sleep. The next day everybody comes as hey said they would.

"Hi Nico, how are you?" asks Hazel. I open my mouth but no sound comes out. She smiles and rubs my cheek. They talked about how their day was, while I ate the food Esperanza brought me. That was the same pattern everyday. They came, talked, left, and to sleep. Leo sometimes attempted to talk with me, but no luck. After two weeks, he started to get frustrated.

"Hey Nico," he says when he wakes up. "Forgive," I whisper. His eyes widen and he jumps next to me. "What was that?" he asks. "Forgive myself," I say. "Why would you have to forgive yourself?" he asks, trying to get the conversation going.

"Bianca and mom, help," I whisper. "That's what made you like this? Seeing them?" he asks. I nod and look down. He stays silent for a while, probably shocked that I was on the verge of dying. 

"I'll help you," he finally says, giving me a small smile. I nod and turn around to go to the bathroom. When I'm washing my hands, I look at the mirror and see one of the green things with the red eyes and long teeth and nails. I quickly turn around, but it's not there. I'm getting scared, am I losing my mind? I shake the thought away from my head and go back to the room. Leo is talking to the doctor.

"Hi Nico," says Calypso when she notices me. I wave my hand. "I was just here talking with Leo about your progress. You haven't said anything yet, but at least you don't look into nothingness," she says, smiling. I nod and sit on my bed. "I'll leave now. The nurse will shortly come and change your bandages," she says and with that leaves. Leo comes and sits next to me.

"I know you don't want me to tell anybody about what you said. It'll be between us," he says, smiling. I look at him and give him a small smile. He's widens when he sees mine. We hear a soft knock on the door and Leo stands up to open it. A girl with red hair and green eyes comes in. She walks up to me and smiles.

"Hi, I'm Rachel, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I'm a new nurse," she says. I nod and show her my arms. She sits down on a chair and unwraps my old bandages. When she sees my marks, he eyes widen but she doesn't say anything. She washes them, which may I say hurts more than being stabbed a thousand times. Then she puts the new bandages.

"See? All done. I think I'm, um, supposed to stay with you guys for a while," she says, looking confused. "Yeah, you just try and talk to him. Since, you know," Leo says. She looks at me and studies me carefully. I look at Leo and he's giving me a thumbs up. 

"Why don't you want him to tell anybody you talked?" she asks. I'm taken back with the question. How on earth could she possibly now that? "W-what did you say?" asks Leo. She sighs and looks at him.

"I'm good at reading people. He doesn't look at anybody the way he looks at you, which means he shared something with you. Which means he talked," she replies. "Please, don't tell anybody," Leo begs. "Don't worry, this'll stay between us," she says, smiling. Leo sighs in relief and sits down next to me.

"Is he your brother or boyfriend?" Rachel asks Leo. Leo stutters and starts blushing furiously. "He's my best friend," he finally chokes out. She looks at him and smirks. "Yeah, okay," she replies. We talk until Hazel and Frank arrive.

"Well, it's my time to leave. It was nice meeting you guys, see you tomorrow," says Rachel and leaves. Hazel and Frank sit down and we start talking about nothing in particular. Then Percy and Annabeth arrive, after that Piper with Esperanza and Marie.

"Where's Jason?" asks Leo. "He's sick and his sister insisted he stayed home so he wouldn't get worse," replies Piper. "Oh Thalia," sighs Leo. They all keep talking and I eat Esperanza's burritos. Seriously, she is a goddess when it comes to cooking and machines. After a while, I look up to see everybody looking at me. I look at Leo panicked.

"Guys, don't look at him like he's I don't know what. He'll feel uncomfortable," he tells them. They look at him surprised but do as he is told. The rest of the day went the same as usual. The rest of the week actually. I talked a bit more to Leo, who was always looking for anything to talk about. I could now keep a conversation going for a while now. 

"Want to watch 'Friends'?" Leo asks. He was looking for something good to watch and he stopped there. "Yeah," I reply. We start watching and almost instantly we are on the floor laughing. 

"Is he dumb or what?" I ask between laughs. "I know right! You don't just ask that!" Leo exclaims. We watch more episodes the rest of the day since it was an all-day thing. Leo called the others and told them that I was feeling too sick and that they should come early the next day. Since today was Friday, nobody worked tomorrow so they all agreed. Rachel even asked to be with us the whole time to "make sure nothing happened". She brought popcorn and Leo brought drinks. We kept watching the series which is hysterical. Singing the theme song like weirdos. Rachel left when it was finished. Leo and I just sat there in silence.

"I guess you're feeling better. I think we can even leave soon," Leo says. "Yeah, I can't stand being always around doctors and this cold," I reply. "Except Rachel, she's cool," says Leo. "Yeah, the only one I actually like company of. She's nice," I say. I stand up and go to the bathroom to take a shower. Leo goes in after I come out. I dry my hair and plop down on my bed. When I close my eyes I can still see those monsters, mom, and Bianca. I quickly open them and sit up.

"You okay?" asks Leo walking up to me. "Yeah," I lie. He looks at me and glares. "You're a terrible liar," he says, sitting down on the couch. "Well I told you what I saw when I was, you know. I can see them Leo. I see them when I close my eyes, when I look in the mirror. I want it to stop but it just doesn't," I say, eyes getting watery. Leo bites his lip and comes to me. He hugs me and I hug back. 

"That's not real, I'm real," he whispers in my ear. I fall back on my bed and ask him to stay with me. He lays down an looks at me. 

"Go to sleep. You look exhausted," he says. I put my head on his chest and close my eyes. "I'll be there for you, when the rain starts to pour. I'll be there for you, like I've been there before. I'll be there for you, 'cause you're there for me too," he softly sings. I feel his heart beating and I know, he is real and here. With me, helping. I slowly fall asleep. Usually, I have nightmares. But tonight, I slept in peace.

The next day I wake up to some whisper. I slowly open my eyes and see that Rachel is standing in front of me, grinning widely. I look at Leo's couch and not see him there. Then I feel something move next to me. When I look, I see Leo waking up.

"Cute," I hear Rachel whisper. I glare at her and she giggles. Leo gets up and looks around. When he notices he's in my bed, he quickly looks at me.

"Are you okay?" he asks. "Yah, thanks," I reply. He smiles and stands up to go wash his teeth. Rachel comes sit next to me and takes a picture with her phone. I chuckle and ask her what was that for.

"They told me you're leaving today. I'm spending the day with you guys. I even took a picture of both of you," she says, showing me a picture of me sleeping on Leo. I blush but turn away so she won't see.

"Give me your phone," I say. She does and I add mine and Leo's phone number in there. "Whenever you want to hang out, call us," I say. She smiles and hugs me. Leo comes back out and stares at us. 

"I don't get one?" he asks. Rachel and I stand up and hug him. We all pull apart and start laughing. I go wash my teeth and, like alway, see something in my mirror. This time it was Bianca. I quickly go outside to find that everybody is there already. 

"Hi Nico! You're finally getting out of here!" exclaims Hazel. I go up to her and give her a hug. We stay there talking, waiting for Dr. Calypso to come and let me out. When she does, she gives me a paper.

"This is for Dr. Avila. She's a psychologist that I recommend you go to. She's really good, and I'm sure you'll like it," she says. I take the paper and give it to Marie. "That would be it. Remember to change your bandages and don't stop interacting," she concludes. I nod and she lets us leave. Leo and I say goodbye and tell her that she better call. She laughs and agrees. We leave and head home. I left with Marie and Hazel, Leo left with Esperanza, and the others went home. When we arrive, I run inside. I go to my room and drop my bags, the run back down. Hazel and Marie are waiting to go and eat at my favorite restaurant. We go to 'Tarantinos Italian Restaurant'. I eat fettucinne, Hazel meat lasagna, and Marie Ceasar Salad. We talk for a while about how they're happy I'm better and about school. On Monday I'd be going back, hopefully something was done about the bullies.

"What about the guys that beat me up?" I ask. Hazel laugh evilly and Marie thrust her hands together. "Taken care of," says Hazel. I laugh at them and we keep eating. When we go back home, I quickly get ready to sleep and fall to bed. I close them and I see them there, lying dead in front of me. I sit up and wipe away my tears. I start thinking about what everybody's saying. About how I'm okay now. Oh, how wrong they are. There's a difference about being physically okay and psychologically okay. I wasn't okay, not even close. The demons still hunt me, when I close my eyes or think for a second too long. And there's no one here now, I can't rely on anybody. I promised myself to stay here and not run away, but it's hard. When you feel like you're drowning, wrong seems right and right seems wrong. I'm staying here, even if right now it seems wrong. 

I close my eyes and lay back down on my bed. I can see everything, haunting me. I force myself to keep my eyes closed and be strong. I slowly fall asleep, and I'm scared. Scared of the monsters and bad things that are in my head. I fall asleep and wait for the nightmares to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so now you see how the last chapter makes sense to go with this one. Okay now byeee magnificent bunnies!!!!


	7. Accept Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody insists Nico gets help, but he doesn't think it's necessary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tu sei il mio Soldatino  
> La ragione per cui vivo  
> Non ti scordar di me  
> io vigliero su di te
> 
> Okay so I love that song seriously it's awesome!  
> Nico's Lullaby Soldatino by Paola Bennet

Some people just don't understand. I don't want help. I don't need it. Okay, maybe I do, but I still don't want it. You do one mistake and boom! You need help from an expert in crazy. Well at least they're not making me stay in a hospital. 

"Come on Nico," groans Hazel, pulling at my covers. 

"I'm not going," I reply. She sighs and leaves my room. When she comes back, she has a big pot in her hand.

"What are you-aaaaahhhhh!" I exclaim. She just dropped the super cold water from the pot all over me. I get up and run to the bathroom. I turn on the shower handle to hot. I get in, clothes on. Hazel comes in laughing.

"Not cool," I say, glaring at he. She laughs and rolls her eyes. "Get ready, and we are going," she says, and exits the bathroom. I take a shower and get dressed. When I'm done, I head back down. Hazel and Marie are waiting for me in the car. I close the house and get in our green Toyota. We head to Manhattan Psychiatric Center. It was a huge, cream building. We made our way in and were greeted by a secretary. She told us were Dr. Avila's office was and we headed to it. When we went in, the doctor was already outside calling for me. I told Marie and Hazel to stay and I went with the doctor. I sat down in one of her red chairs. She sat down on a little stool next to me. 

"Hi, Nico. I'm Dr.Avila," she says. "What's you real name?" I ask. "Reyna," she replies. I shake her hand and she stares at me. I just sit there awkwardly while she writes stuff down on her note pad.

"So Nico, tell me about yourself," she finally says. I open my mouth and then close it. That's when I realize that I barely know myself. That's kind of creepy.

"I don't know what to say," I admit. She smiles and writes something down.

"Ok, well tell me about your family," she says.

"Well Marie adopted me," I say, shrugging. "Did you know your birth mother?" she asks. I clench my fists without realizing it. She does and writes down.

"Yes, she was called Maria di Angelo. I had a sister named Bianca. Our father left us and never came back, not even contacted us once," I say. "Are you mad?" she asks. "Is that even a question? He wasn't there when they died. He never cared for me. He had an affair with Marie and left us forever. I'm not mad at Marie, since she didn't know and without her I don't know where I would be," I reply. She nods and starts writing again. She takes a long time writing for something so short. I'm getting irritated with the noise her pen makes when she presses down to write a new letter.

"What about school?" she asks. 

"I go to Olympus High with Hazel," I say. "You have friends?" she asks. "Well, yeah. There's Percy and Annabeth, the golden couple. Jason and Piper, who act like my parents. Frank, Hazel's boyfriend. And Leo, my best friend," I reply.

"Tell me about Leo," she says, crossing her legs. I blush lightly and she writes something down. 

"He's Hispanic. Imagine him a Latino elf. He's always making jokes and dumb puns. His mom, Esperanza, is an awesome cook. But you should see them working on machines, they're awesome. We hang out everyday after school, go to the mall, to his house, then I go back home. I don't live far from him," I say. She smile and nods.

"I would love to meet him someday," she says. I smile and lay down with a loud sigh.

"What's on your mind?" she asks. 

"I don't want to be here. Just because I did one mistake, doesn't mean I should be here," I say. 

"You need to be here," she replies. I sit up and glare at her.

"You don't know what I need. I do. I don't need to or want to be in this crazy people place with a crazy people doctor," I spat. She keeps writing in her notebook.

"Stop that, I don't want you writing about me," I say. She puts down her pen and notebook on the floor and looks at me.

"If you talk to me, you'll be out of here in no time," she says, giving me a small smile. I roll my eyes and lay back down. I stay like that for the rest of the session.

"Nico, we have five minutes left. Anything you'd like to say?" she asks. I just stare out the window, to the people below. The way they laugh, how they're happy. Maybe they don't see the things I see. Or maybe they're just fakes hiding their emotions.

"Well, that's it for today. Nice meeting you," she says, shaking my hand. I walk out and sit down next to Hazel.

"How did it go?" she asks. "I want to leave," I reply. "Not so great then," she mutters. Marie walks up to us and we leave to eat at McDonalds. They're possibly doing it because they made me go to that place and they're sorry and they're taking me to my favorite place to eat. Or maybe because it was the closest thing to us. Whatever it was, I didn't care. We were here and I'm hungry. I ordered a Happy Meal and they both order Big Macs. 

"That's it?" asks Hazel. I nod and eat a fry.

"You're too skinny Nico. Eat more," says Marie. I ignore her and keep eating. All I want to do is go to Leo's house and talk with him and Esperanza while they work on something. 

"Can I go to Leo's house after we leave?" I ask. Hazel raises her eyebrows. Marie just smile and nods. We finish eating and they drop me up at his house. Instead of knocking, I just open the door and walk in. 

"Leo!" I call. "In the garage!" he replies. I go to the kitchen and through the garage door. He was working under a car while Esperanza worked on a car engine in another car. Leo rolls out form under the car and smiles up at me. He was covered in oil and grease. That made him look one million times cuter. Damn him and his hotness. I start laughing and he frowns.

"What's wrong?" he asks. I motion all over my face with my hand. He grabs a rag from his tool belt and wipes his face. I laugh and walk up to him. I take his towel.

"Let me get it," I say, and wipe his face. I give him back his towel and smile. "Ta-da," I say. He smiles and stand up, offering me a hand. 

"How'd it go?" he asks.

"Horrible. I don't want to go back," I reply.

"You need to, mijo!" says Esperanza. "I know, but I don't want a stranger knowing about my personal life," I say. She closes the car and walk up to her. She wipes her hands to the side of her pants.

"You'll get used to her," she says, giving me a kiss on the head and walking to the kitchen.

"How did Hazel convince you to go?" asks Leo. 

"Throwing a pot of cold water all over me," I reply. He laughs and we go in. 

"Let me go clean up," he says, and with that runs upstairs. I sit down on a chair in the kitchen. Esperanza comes back down all cleaned up.

"What should I do today?" she asks.

"Mofongo," I reply. She smile and gets out the ingredients. Leo comes back down with new clothes as well. He sits down next to me. 

"What did you guys talk about?" he asks. 

"Leo! That's between Nico and his doctor!" exclaims Esperanza laughing.

"But I want to know," whines Leo.

"All you want to know is if I mentioned you. Yes I did," I say. "Did you tell her that I'm you awesome, super funny best friend?" asks Leo, wiggling his eyebrows playfully. I roll my eyes and we keep talking. Esperanza sets the food down in front of us and we start eating. I drink Pomegranate juice when I'm done. We go to the family room and Leo sets the TV. He looks through some movies we could see. Esperanza comes in with the popcorn and ice cream. Leo picks Frozen.

"Seriously?" I ask. 

"It's awesome," he argues. He hits play and we watch it. Esperanza was too tired, so it was just me and Leo. This made it way more fun. When Anna started singing Love is an Open Door with Prince Hance, Leo and I got up and started laughing. Leo got on top of a sofa and I got up on another one. We start singing to each other.

"The way we finish each other's-" he sings.  
"Sandwiches!"  
"That's what I was gonna say!"

We sit back down when it finishes. Then when Elsa started singing Let It Go, chaos came. We threw flour all around the floor to make it look like snow. We started walking around it, throwing it everywhere. Leo started building a little castle with blankets and pillows. We both got up and started signing. 

"The cold never bothered me anyway," we both sang in unison. We were going to climb down when Esperanza came down.

"What a mess!" she exclaims. Leo panics and makes us both fall down. We both start laughing.

"We'll clean this up Mamá," says Leo. She sighs but smiles and goes back to her room to sleep. Leo and I sit back down and keep watching the movie. I look at him and he's smiling at the movie. How I wish he liked me back. But he was straight. How did I know? He had a girlfriend and is always flirting with girl. But it's hard not to like him. The way his brown curls cover his left eye, the wide smile he always has on. The way his eyes light up when he laughs. Yep, I'm doomed. I don't notice I'm staring until he snaps his fingers in my face.

"Lost you there. You okay?" he asks. "Yeah," I say, turning away to hide my blush. We keep watching the movie. When it's finished, Leo puts We're the Millers. We fall asleep watching movies. Next to each other. Friends do that right? Yeah, it's how we wake up that shocks me. I'm on Leo's side, he has an arm wrapped around me. His face is in my neck, our legs tangled up together. I stay there, frozen. That's when I hear Esperanza gasp. I close my eyes and fake I'm asleep. I bet she's mad because of the mess. We forgot to clean. I mentally slap myself. She walks up to us. Then I hear her laugh. What?

"Lo sabia," she says, and walks away. I don't realize I'm holding my breathe. I calm down and stay there, enjoying Leo's warmth. I feel him starting to wake up. From the corner of my eye, I see him slowly waking up. He looks down at me and smiles. Weird. He slowly moves and stand up. He goes to the bathroom. When he comes out, he jumps on top of me.

"Wake up!" he exclaims. I jump up and glare at him. He smirks and runs away. I follow behind him. He runs down the hallway and turns to the left. We're in a room. I look for him but he's out of sight. Then he's closing the door of the room I'm in and runs away. I open it and follow behind him. He thought I would tae longer to find him, do he slowed down. That made it easy for me to jump on him and pin him on the floor.

"You will die, Valdez," I say. He laughs and tries to get up. 

"Let me go," he says. I smirk and shake my head. He smiles and does the most unexpected thing ever. He kisses me. It was a quick peck on the lips. But it was enough to shock me long enough for him to get up. I look at him in shock. He starts blushing furiously. 

"I-I'm sorry. I don't, um," he stutters, scratching his head. I smile and stand up. I go up to him and kiss him. He kissed back. It was short and awkward, but I enjoyed it. He seemed to too because when we pulled away he was smiling.

"Do you wanna go, I don't know, out with me? Maybe?" he asks. I nod and hug him. He smiles and hugs me tight. 

"Why do you want to date someone as messed up as me?" I ask. 

"Having flaws is what makes you perfect," he says. I smile and kiss him again. This time it was longer and more passionate. We pulled away when we heard a squeal. We looked to see Esperanza smiling widely.

"Called it!" she exclaims and hugs us both. Leo and I blush a bit. We pull apart and get ready. I put on my ripped, skinny jeans and black skull shirt. I also put on my gray hoodie and beanie, I was too lazy to comb my hair. I ho down to find Leo waiting for me. He has a white, button up shirt, brown slacks, and his boots. He offered to walk me home. When we're outside, he intertwines our fingers together and we walk to my house. When we get there, Leo looks at me.

"Got it. You and me, date on Friday at 8:00 at that new Italian Restaurant," he says. 

"Okay, bye," I say. He pulls me in for a kiss then pulls apart and leaves. I go in and see Hazel and Marie standing there, waiting for me. They're both smiling widely. I close the door and walk in.

"Why so happy?" I ask.

"I told you! He told me himself," says Marie. Hazel looks at me in disbelief.

"You have a date!" she exclaims and they both run to hug me.

"It's not a big deal," I say.

"When are you going out?" asks Hazel.

"On Friday," I reply. They squeal and jump up and down. They're acting like Esperanza earlier. 

"Don't tell anybody," I say, looking seriously at them.

"You secret's safe with us," says Hazel, "Now, we have to get you ready for your date on Friday."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally Leo, you took a long time in asking him out. Okay I suck at romantic things so comment if you have any cute ideas 'cause I have none ._.


	8. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Leo go on their first official date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting huge writer's block. Nico was supposed to be still depressed, it was supposed to take longer. I'm just writing another story (not here) and I'm getting all mixed up. I'll try and twist things a bit so the story can keep going correctly!

My alarm goes off at 7:30 a.m. I get up and get ready for school. I enjoyed going now that everyday the bullies would have to do what I told them. That's what you get losers. Hazel's already waiting for me. I run down the stairs and we walk to school. 

"You excited?" she asks.

"For…"

"You're date!" she exclaims. Ah yes, may I explain. Last week my best friend kissed me and then asked me if I would go out with him. I, of course, said yes because I'd had a crush on him since the day we met. Cheesy right? Anyways, Hazel and Marie found out and went all psycho mode. I had to go shopping with them. Surprisingly they took this completely well. Some of the other foster families 'returned' me because I wasn't straight. I acted like it was nothing, but in the inside I was screaming like a fangirl. That gave my mind sometime to focus on other things other than my depression. Of course, that's not always. Marie got rid of all sharp things because she caught me staring at a knife, then back at my wrist. I still woke up screaming for my mother and Bianca to stop the car. Every night I would relive that moment, and the manticore attack, and the weird creatures that almost killed my friends and family. I'd started to think that my time like that, with the three trials, had just been my imagination. But it seemed so real, lately I'd been starting to believe it. 

"I'm not really excited," I say shrugging. She pushes me to the side and laughs.

"You're a terrible liar," she says with a smirk. I roll my eyes and turn away before she notices my blush. We keep walking and finally reach school ten minutes later. Some old lady asked us to help with her bags, and Hazel, being the nice girl she is, insisted we help. When we arrived, we were greeted by all our friends. Leo hadn't arrived though. I started looking around for him but didn't see him.

"Looking for Leo?" I hear a female voice say. I turn around and see Piper and Jason. Jason had one arm around her shoulder.

"Yeah, have you seen him?" I ask. 

"There was a little problem with one of the cars so he stayed to help his mom. He'll come back for third period," says Jason. I nod and start walking away. Then a hand holds me back and turns me around. Piper leans close to my ear and whispers.

"You don't fool me," she says. She pulls away and wiggles her eyebrows playfully. I blush lightly and run to my class. I get in to first Period. Mr. H, construction. I don't know why I still went to that class. Every time we worked with sharp objects, which was every time, Hazel would tell me to do nothing. It kind of sucks that they don't trust me now. But if you think about it, it's wise. I just lay back and close my eyes. Horrible idea. 'I'm scarred for life', I think to myself. I ask to go to the bathroom. Hazel eye's me carefully but then lets me leave. I go to the sink and splash my face with water. I open my eyes quickly, just to see my mother with blood all over her standing behind me. I look down. I can't close my eyes nor can I have them open. I just sit down next to the sink and breathe heavily. I think of happy moments. Things that are actually worth living for. I think of the Friends marathon Leo, Rachel, and I had. Rachel. I take out my phone and dial her number.

"Hi Nico," answers a voice on the other line. 

"Hey," I reply.

"What's up?" she asks. "Just thinking," I reply. She laughs and I can even hear her roll her eyes. Weird you might think. Not when you know a person well.

"That's dangerous for you," she says. I smile and lay my head on the wall.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" she asks. 

"I am, in the bathroom. Humor me please?" I say.

"I'm working," she whines. "Take a five minute break," I beg. "Ugh fine." I hear her talking with somebody.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" she asks. "Something that takes my mind off things," I reply. She thinks for a while, then responds.

"How's Leo?" she asks. I sit up straight and run my hand through my hair.

"Great. He's working with his mom on something. I'll see him later today," I say.

"A date?" she jokes. I stay quiet. "Oh my god! Seriously? Details!" she exclaims. I chuckle and shake my head.

"There's not much to tell. It's the first one," I reply. She squeals so loud it hurts my ears. 

"Be good!" she says. "I am good," I say.

"And use protection," she says.

"I will- wait what?! Dirty minded person alert! Rachel!" I say. She laughs. 

"I'm just kidding. I know you two are good boys. How are the, you know?" she asks. She's talking about the things I see. "Getting worse," I reply.

"Don't worry, you'll get through it," she says. "Yeah, it's been almost a month. I don't think I'll ever get through it," I reply.

"Just have faith, Nico. I've got to go. The doctor needs my help. Talk to you later," she says.

"Bye," I reply and she hangs up. I stay like that for a while, phone in my ear, sitting down, eyes almost closed. I decide to go back because Hazel would get worried. I jog back to the classroom and sit down next to her.

"What took you so long?" she asks, worried.

"A guy has to do his business," I reply. She doesn't look convinced but lets it go. The rest of the class I just sit back. Then the bell rings and I go off to my next class.

"Nico!" Hazel exclaims. I get out of my daze and look at her. She motions me to Mrs.Ath. I see she has something written on the board. Though can't read it thanks to my dyslexia. 

"Excuse me?" I say. 

"Read," she says. I squint my eyes and try to read. I hear some kids snickering. I feel uncomfortable with so many people looking at me. 

"M-What are z-some figurative languages?" I say. I hear more laughter. The teacher shushes them and looks at me, giving me a small smile.

"You got the most important parts. Now answer the question," she says. I think back to Piper's notes, she writes a lot. 

"Simile, personification, hyperbole, onomatopeia, metaphor, alliteration, assonance, oxymoron, and allusion," I reply. The whole class went silent. Mrs.Ath smiles widely at me. 

"There you go kids. He missed school for three weeks, is dyslexic and has ADHD. And still he knows this well. No excuses for not knowing this," she says and turns around. I feel all eyes burning on me. I stand to get out but Hazel puts her hand in my shoulder. I sit back down and keep taking notes. When the bell rings, I quickly run to my next class, chemistry with Mrs.Aph, so that nobody would do anything. I fall asleep on class, then go to Gym with Mrs.Art. After that, finally lunch. I am starving. And I'm kind of anxious to see Leo. I walk to my table with some pizza and extra sauce. Everybody is talking with their partners. I sigh and eat my lunch. A pair of hands cover my eyes. I recognize that smell anywhere, oil and grease. I turn around to see Leo standing there. He has an orange shirt and blue jeans. And obviously the suspenders, they always have to be there. He sits in front of me. He lazes his fingers with mine under the table. 

"Hi," he says. I smile and look down. He chuckles, which makes the hairs on my neck stand up. 

"You excited?" he asks. When I get a good look at him, I see that he's kind of nervous. I smirk and put on a confused face.

"For what?" I ask innocently. 

"F-for, um, well-" I cut him off. "Of course I am," I say. He sighs in relief and stands up. He leaves and comes back with cheesy breadsticks. We keep eating, enjoying each other's comfort in silence. I let myself close my eyes at his touch. Almost immediately I see one of the creatures cut Leo's neck with its gigantic nails. I open my eyes and stand up. Everybody on the table stops talking and look at me.

"You okay, Nico?" asks Hazel.

"Yeah, almost dropped my drink on myself," I lie. She laughs and nods. Leo raises an eyebrow and I give him a small smile. I sit down and squeeze his hand. 

"I'm fine," I whisper. He bites his lip and keeps eating. When he's done, he looks at me in the eye. I get lost in those huge, dark eyes. They had a maniac look in his eyes, seemed so open but yet mysterious. I notice also small details. How he has some freckles that cover his nose. That smirk he always has on. Curly, brown hair that looks like you've been working and had no time to brush it yet stays perfect. His pointy ears that get red when he's nervous. I feel his grip on my hand tighten. His fingers are long and slim yet rough, perfect for working with anything. He has some muscle, yet not so much. He's scrawny, but has a bit of muscle from so much working with machines. I keep staring at him, enjoying the view. Everything around me disappeared, he was everything right now.

"Leo! Nico!" calls Percy. I wake up from my daze and look at them.

"Why were you staring at each other?" asks Annabeth.

"Staring contest," says Leo. I nod in agreement. Hazel giggles a bit and I nudge her with my shoulder.

"Who won?" asks Frank.

"You guys didn't let us finish," I say. We all laugh and keep talking. Then we leave for the rest of our classes. I wait impatiently for school to finish so that I can go to my date already. It's horrible, waiting so long to go on one. But finally the time for school to end arrives and the time for psycho Marie and Hazel comes forth.

"Come here," says Marie. I walk over to her when I get home from school. 

"What?" I ask. She takes my hand and takes me to my room, Hazel behind us.

"Your clothes is there. Take a shower, put it on. We'll work from there," she says. I nod and the leave my room. I grab my towel and take a warm shower. It was getting cold outside. When I finish, I go back to my room and put on the clothes Hazel and Marie bought for me. Dark jeans, not ripped though. Gray, long sleeve button up shirt with a black vest. Some dark dressing shoes. And finally something I like to wear, a gray beanie. I walk back down to Hazel and Marie.

"You look great! Leo will love it," says Hazel. I blush lightly and smile.

"I don't think you guys need to do anything else," I say. "You're right. I don't want to change your look too much," says Marie. I sit down on the couch and tried to take a nap. Keep in mind I said tried. Yeah, I couldn't. You know how some people feel like they fall backwards and quickly wake up. Well, I can't wake up quickly. I stay falling down into nothingness. I wake up sweating. Hazel quickly comes to me and hands me a towel.

"What is wrong?" she asks seriously.

"Nothing Hazel. Juste nervous," I lie. She sighs and gives me a hug.

"He's here," she whispers in my ear. I get up and walk to the door. Standing there is no more than Leo Valdez, improved may I say. He's wearing a white, long sleeved shirt. Blue jeans. White vans that looked brand new. He had a vest too, his was gray. 

"Wow," he says, looking at me up and down. 

"Hello to you too," I say. He smiles and offers me his hand.

"Shall we go?" he says with a deep voice. I laugh and take his hand.

"Don't use that voice again," I say. He chuckles and we start walking. The restaurant wasn't too far away, about half an hour. Some people gave us weird looks and we just showed them our awesome middle fingers. We arrived at 'Italiano è Migliore'. It wasn't all that fancy, but it was quite cozy. We got a table next to the window, apart from everybody else. 

"You like the place?" asks Leo.

"I'll let you know when we try the food," I reply. The waiter comes and takes our order. She brings us our drinks, coke, and leaves. We talk about random things, like what do you call horses that fly. Yeah, it was weird but we enjoyed it. The waiter came and brought us or food. Leo ordered agnello and I ordered beef carpaccio. The things was great. Leo gave me some of his food to try and I almost took it away from him. We kept talking for a while. Then I asked the question that had been gnawing in the back of my mind.

"Why do you like me?" I ask. He put down his food and looked at me. He smiled and takes my hand.

"What is there not to like about you? You're the best guy in the world. You don't think you're mister perfect. You accept your flaws. The mysterious way you are, even if you say everything you have in mind. Your personality. Those little, rare smiles you give. The way I feel when you're close to me. How those dark eyes hold so much, and you keep going. I like everything about you. It's impossible not to fall in love with you," he says. I stay silent. Everything is blurry, and I notice I'm about to cry. I look away and smile. Leo notices and turns me so he sees me. He wipes away my tears and brings our lips together.

"And I always will love you," he whispers. 

"You're so cheesy," I say. 

"You love it," he says.

"I do, I love you," I reply. I blush when those words come out of my mouth. We keep eating and talking, enjoying everything. When we finish, Leo insists he pays for the food.

"I have money," I say.

"I invited you, so I pay," he replies and gives her the money. We leave and go to the park. Leo sits on a bench and I sit next to him. Actually, with my feet in his lap.

"I liked this," I say. 

"We should to it again," he says.

"What does this make us?" I ask. I'm worried about what he might answer.

"Whatever you want it to be," he replies. I sit up straight and give him a kiss. A long, passionate one. Not needy. 

"I want to be able to call you my boyfriend," I whisper. He blushes and smiles.

"Then consider me it," he says. We keep walking around the park, in silent. Comfortable silence. Leo walks me home after a while.

"See you on monday," he says.

"Yeah, I'll see you before," I reply. He laughs and kisses my cheek.

"If I'll see you sooner, lets save that kiss," he says. I pout and he smirks. I open the door to my house and he leaves. I walk inside and go to my room. I change to a sweatshirt and sweatpants. I stay in socks. Hazel and Marie are waiting downstairs for me. 

"How'd it go?" asks Hazel. 

"I have a boyfriend," I whisper, looking down to hide my blush. They squeal and hug me.

"This is so embarrassing," I mutter. They laugh and pull away.

"We're just happy," says Marie. I roll my eyes and try to stop myself from smiling. Failed miserably. Then the doorbell rings. I go and get the door. There's a man standing there. He was tall and muscular, with albino white skin. Intense black eyes that looked like either a genius or a madman. Shoulder-length black hair and a beard. 

"Hello," he says. He has an oily voice. Marie and Hazel come running towards us. Marie gasps and Hazel's eyes widen.

"Dad?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said a bang bang a bangity bang I said a bang bang bangity bang, a bang bang bang. Sorry I had to. Byeeee my fluffy bunnies!!!


	9. Daddy Dearest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daddy joins the party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just loved the cliffhanger that I decided to make you wait a bit more *evil laughter* haha jk I just had a bit of trouble deciding what to write xD

"Dad?!"

You know how in movies the dad comes home and the kid runs up to hug him. Then they say they've missed each other and beg to never leave again. Then the dad tells the kid I love you and the kid cries on the dad. Yeah, this was nothing like this. When I processed what was happening, automatic hate towards that guy. How dare he come here after so long. Why, after all this time, he decides to come. And more importantly, today. It was supposed to be a good day for me. 

"Hello dear. My how you've grown," he says.

"Of course I have. I haven't seen you in 13 years," says Hazel glaring at him.

"Ah yes dear. You were a baby. Hello there Nico," he says.

"Who are you?" I ask. I already knew the answer, but nothing else seemed right to say. The man smiles and comes inside the house. Wow, without being invited in. 

"I'm your father of course. I'm here to say that tomorrow I want to eat with you two and my family. A limousine will pick you up at night. Be ready," he says. 

"You think you can just come here and tell us what to do? Where were you when Bianca and mom died? Where have you been my whole life? You're a-" Hazel puts her hand on my shoulder. I sigh and stop talking.

"We'll have time to talk tomorrow. Now goodnight," and with that he leaves. I turn to look at Marie and Hazel. They both look shocked.

"Why didn't you let me say anything?" I ask.

"We need him," says Marie. "I've been good for 15 years without him," I reply. They both look down. I was getting impatient. I started pacing in the room.

"My job is not paying, Nico. I have to quit my job. We need his money," explains Marie. "Can't you get another job?" I ask. "Not in time to pay for everything I owe. Like the car, and the house. I need you two to go to that dinner. Just this once. At least until we're stable again," she begs. She looks so desperate. I know she wouldn't make us if it was necessary.

"Fine," I Mutter. She comes up to me and hugs me. I wrap my arms around her, too. Hazel comes in and joins. We stay like that for a while. When we pull away, I go to my room. I lay down on my bed and stare at the ceiling. I didn't want to sleep, but I wanted to escape this now. Wouldn't it be better if I wasn't here. Just away with Bianca and mom. But I couldn't do that. It would hurt Marie and Hazel. It would hurt my friends. It would hurt Leo… I close my eyes and cover myself with sheets. It's hot but I fear that if I pull them off, the creatures might get to me. And so I stay like that. Trying to sleep, scared of the dark. Before I know it, Hazel's already knocking on my door. I get up and go to the bathroom. I put the water in cold, I was sweaty and sticky. I put on my usual clothes, black skinny jeans, black skull shirt, black sneakers, gray hoodie, and a gray beanie. I walk downstairs and find Hazel eating oatmeal. She prepared one for me, too. I sit down beside her. She has a white blouse and red jeans. Her curly hair was put up in a ponytail. Red sneakers with white dots. She looked beautiful as always. 

"Where's Marie?" I ask.

"Looking for a job," she replies. I nod and serve myself some juice. Cherry pomegranate. Anything that had pomegranate I was fine with. When we finished, we sat down on the family room. I turn on the TV, How I Met Your Mother was playing. Not even that could get a smile from Hazel. I grab her hand and she looks at me. Her eyes get watery and she puts her head on my chest. I run my hand through her hair. She starts sobbing, a sound that breaks my heart. Hazel was supposed to always be happy, not like this. This happened to her because of that piece of schist. 

"Don't worry Hazel, it's going to be alright," I whisper in her ear. It sounded like I was trying to convince myself. Which was true. We stayed like that for a while, Hazel in my arms. Even after she stopped crying, I just kept hugging her. Truth be told, I needed it. Night was already falling when we pulled apart. I wiped Hazel's tears with my thumb and smiled at her. We watched TV, just to have some noise in the house. Then a horn honks. Hazel and I stand up and walk to the door.

"You ready?" I ask. She looks at me and takes my hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she says. We make our way to the limousine outside waiting for us. The one that would take us to that person who thinks can be called our father. A chauffeur opens the door for us and we go inside. It's huge on the inside, could easily hold a family. Which I guess it does, since he mentioned something about his family. There was a little fridge that had some drinks. Coke, Sprite, Fanta, and Cherry Pomegranate. How did he know that, I have no idea. I felt my phone vibrate and I took it out of my pocket. It was Leo, so I answered. 

"Hey," he says, he says all cheerful.

"Hi," I reply, not sounding at all like him.

"What's wrong?" he asks. I sigh and look at Hazel. She nods, already knowing what I was going to ask.

"Daddy dearest," I reply.

"What?! Your dad? What does he want? You didn't talk to him right? He's a son of a-" I cut him off. "Hazel and I are going to dinner with him and his family. Before you say anything, we need his money. This guy looks rich. It's just for a while," I say.

"If you needed money you could've told me. Mamá wouldn't have minded helping you with that. Marie and her are good friends," says Leo. "I couldn't ask her for more than she's already given me. We'll talk more later, okay? After this, Hazel and I will got to your house," I say. He stays silent. Maybe debating or not wether he should argue.

"Alright, see you soon," he says.

"Bye," I reply before I hang up. I look at Hazel and lean in closer to her. We stay silent the rest of the way. When we arrive, the chauffeur opens the door for us. We step outside. I turn to look at the man.

"Thanks, um…" I didn't know this guy's name. He smiles. "I have orders, I can't tell you my name. Doesn't mean you can't call me anything," he says. I think for a while. He has black hair, golden eyes. I felt kind of tired.

"Hypnos, then," I say. Hypnos smiles and nods. He turns and leaves on the limousine. Hazel and I enter the building in front of us. It was huge and fancy. A chandelier hung in the middle of the room. There were many tables set around the place. Everything was black and gold. You might think that looks weird, this place made it work. You could see rich families eating, children dressed similar to their parents. In the back of the room, sat the guy who calls himself our father. He was with three other people. I'm guessing his wife and two children. The woman had curled black hair. She was pale but very beautiful. Her eyes seemed to change colors. The young boy had golden eyes and black hair that reached his shoulders. His skin is darker than that one from his father and mother. The girl had dark eyes, hair looked between black and white. She actually looked frightening. Hazel and I walk over to them. We sit down on the opposite side of the family. "Hello Hazel and Nico. Let me introduce you to my family. They call us the Underworld family. I run a chain of funeral homes, the biggest one in the world, as some say. They call me Hades, my wife Persephone, and my children Thanatos and Melinoe. Of course, those weren't the names we were born with. We changed it when the company became big," he says. I would've found this 'Underworld' thing funny if it wasn't for the fact that I hate this man. "Hello there," said his wife, Persephone. She shook our hands. Her grip was firm and steady but kind. Though she didn't look kind. She looked at Hazel and smiled, then looked at me and frowned. I looked at the kids. They were looking intensely at us. I felt weird, knowing these creepy kids were my siblings in a way. No, Hazel was my only sister. These kids were just the children of this man that is called our father. "Tell us a bit about yourself Hazel," says Hades. "Well, I go to Olympus High with Nico. I'm a Junior. And I have a boyfriend named Frank," she says. "I'm sure Nico protects you from any harm," says Persephone. I smile and look at her. "What about you, Nico?" asks Hades. "Well yeah, I go to Olympus High with Hazel. Junior," I say. "Any girlfriend?" asks Persephone. I clench my fists. Why does everybody quickly thinks about a girl? But Leo and I decided that not many people should know. And I really didn't trust this man. "No, I don't have a girlfriend," I say, saying 'girlfriend' louder. They look at me confused, but didn't get the message. The waiter comes and takes our orders. I just order a soup, I know I'll eat a lot at Leo's house. Hazel also orders something light, a salad. "That's it dears?" asks Persephone. They all had big plates in front of them. With foods that I can't even name in front of them. Some sort of beef, stew, a weird looking pizza.

"Yes," I reply. Melinoe gets up and kicks me in the chin. 

"Ow, what was that for?" I ask. She laughs and sits down. 

"Oh dear. She doesn't like you," says Hades, and he and Persephone start laughing. I resist the urge to smack them both. 

"Sorry for my sister," says Thanatos. I smile at the kid. At least he was nice. We kept eating. Hazel and I tried to keep to ourselves the most we could, not wanting him to know much. Them, on the other side, wouldn't shut up about bragging how great their business is and their 'family'. When I've finally had enough of them, I drop my spoon.

"How can you talk so proudly about your business and family? No, 'how have you been these past 15 years Nico?' No, 'I'm sorry for not being there for you' No, 'Your mother and sister were great people or something' No, 'I shouldn't have abandoned you when you needed me the most' Nothing. How dare you just walk into our lives and confuse everybody. Think that you can fix this just by meeting us and giving us something we need. That's NOT how it works!" I say. They all stare at me. The whole room has gone silent.

"Nico-" I stop Hades. "No. This is not fair. Not for me, for Hazel, for Melinoe, for Thanatos. Not even for Persephone. You're not fair. And no I don't want you in my life. You didn't care about my family, or Hazel and Marie. Not once you came for me when Bianca and mom died. No, you kept going with a happy family and a successful business. You know what!? I want nothing to do with this," I say, standing up. I grab Hazel by the hand and walk away. Hypnos is already there. He opens the door for us and lets us in. 

"Where to?" he asks. I hand over a paper with Leo's address on it. He starts the engine and we're on our way. 

"Nico, we needed the money," says Hazel. "If he really wants to do something, he'll give us the money," I reply. "What if he doesn't?" she asks. "We'll manage," I say. She opens her mouth to say something, but quickly closes it. We stay silent the rest of the way. When we arrive, I thank Hypnos for taking us farther away than he's paid for.

"No worry kid, call me whenever you need a ride," he says. "Thanks," I say. "Not too late, though. I'm a sleepyhead," he says. I laugh and shake my head. We say our goodbyes and enter Leo's house. Esperanza and him already have the family room ready with food, desert, and some movies. They sure know how to make me smile. Leo stands up and runs up to me. He wraps his arms around me and I start sobbing. Esperanza comes and runs her hand through my hair. I pull Hazel into the hug, too. We pull apart after a while. Leo smiles and puts his hand on the side of my face and caresses my face. 

"Just seeing you two like that makes me happy," says Hazel. I smile and give her a kiss on the forehead. 

"How about that kiss we were holding," says Leo. I smile and press my lips against his. His lips were soft and warm. When we pull away, he takes my hand. We all walk to the middle of the family room. Leo puts on Hercules. We all eat the tacos Esperanza made. I love the taste they have, Esperanza makes magic or something.

"Do you guys want to know what happened?" asks Hazel.

"No, querida, right now its about getting that off your mind," says Esperanza. When we hit play, Esperanza turns off the lights and sits on the couch. Hazel sits next to her. Leo and I sit on the couch next to their couch. I eat Oreos and Leo Chocolate Chip cookies. Hazel and Esperanza eat ice cream. I snuggle up to Leo, putting my head on his chest. He smiles and kisses me lightly. Then he leans in and whispers in my ear, "I'll always be here for you." I smile and we keep watching the movie, enjoying each other's warmth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think bunnies???


	10. Nico di Anjealous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico isn't the jealous, or so he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, there's a new character I made up. Just to make lil Nicy jealous.

The next few weeks were great. Hades actually payed for us what we needed. Marie went to a job interview and got hired. She was still starting, but she says it was going great. Hazel and I got works at the mall. Hazel worked at Forever 21 and I worked at a McDonalds. Yeah, don't judge me. They offered discounts! Leo and Esperanza insisted in helping with the pay, saying that they didn't want Hazel and I to go through what we did again. In case you're wondering, Leo and I were still kind of a secret. The only people that knew were Hazel, Marie, and Esperanza. We don't know who might me homophobic. But we made it work. After school, we would go to Leo's house. I would eat and then I would go to work. Sometimes in the weekends Leo came by and ate with me in my free time. 

"Hey," I tell Leo when I see him in the hallway. He looks around, making sure nobody's close. He smiles and presses his lips with mine. It was a quick peck on the lips. When we pull away, I take out my phone.

"Rachel demands we hang out with her this weekend," I say. "Let's do it," replies Leo. I text Rachel that we could hang out on Saturday and put my phone away. 

"Where are the others. School hasn't started yet," says Leo. "They're outside. Come on," I say, pulling him with me. Everybody's outside talking. We walk up to them.

"Hello my people," says Leo. They all smile. "I'm thirsty," I say. Hazel looks at me and smirks. Leo starts laughing. 

"Can you just go and bring me water?" I ask him. He nods and leaves. We keep talking. Then a girl comes behind Percy. She has hispanic skin, green eyes that have a mixture of brown in them. She wears a black shirt, dark jean shorts, and ripped leggings. She has chains on the side. High, bald sneakers. Her hair was wavy, cinnamon like Hazel's. It was up in a messy bun. Her backpack had wave patterns in it. Kind of like Percy's. When everybody notices her, they gasp.

"Celestia!" exclaims Percy, giving her a huge hug.

"Hey there big bro," she says. When they pull apart, she says hi to everybody. She hugs Jason and Frank. Then she turns to Annabeth and Hazel.

"Hazelnut and Annie, wow it's great seeing you guys again," she says. Then she turns to Piper. They both squeal and hug each other.

"Did you continue PC? Or maybe it's called now P, anyways details!" exclaims the girl. "It'll always be called PC. And yes actually. You'll be surprised, when I tell you later," replies Piper. She turns to look at me. She eyes me carefully. Yeah, saying that I felt uncomfortable doesn't even start describing how I felt. She smiles and holds out her hand.

"I'm Celestia Mikaelson, Percy's sister. You're Nico right?" she asks, shaking my hand. "Yeah, I'm Nico. How'd you know?" I ask. "Leo doesn't stop talking about you," she says. I blush a little, and turn around quickly to hide it. Then I hear a gaps from behind her. She smiles widely and turns around. Leo's standing there, shocked to see her. She runs up to him and hugs him. He picks her up and spins her around.

"You have no idea how much I've missed you Fire Boy," she says. "Right back at you Genius Girl," he replies. He puts her down.

"What are you doing here?" asks Percy.

"Nice to see you too, Perce," she says. "You know what I mean. I thought you left with dad last year. You're coming back?" he asks. "Nah, he's here for a meeting. We'll leave after he finishes. But that's not for two weeks. So he said I should come here to be with you guys. Mr.D and Chiron understood. 

"I'm confused," I say. They all turn to me. Leo hands me the water bottle. 

"Okay, so this is Celestia, Percy's sister. Like you and Hazel. She left last year to a trip around the world with her father. Now she's back for reasons you've heard. And she's like my best friend," says Piper. "Who's your dad?" I ask. "You'll know him by his nickname, Poseidon. He's a marine biologist, well known by the way," explains Celestia. I nod and take a sip from my water. 

"What are you doing after school?" asks Leo. He was close to Celestia, like shoulder bumping close. Without noticing, my hands clench into fists. 

"I don't know," she admits. "Let's take turns! Today Leo, tomorrow me and Jason, the next day Hazel and Frank, and then Percy and Annabeth. Though she'll be every night with them, at least Percy. But what do you guys think?" says Piper. They all sigh but agree. I look at Leo and notice him staring at Celestia. I snap my fingers in front of his face and jumps back. 

"Oh, sorry. It's just I didn't think I'd see her again. At least not for a few years," says Leo. I bite my lip and glare at the girl. "Nice meeting you Celestia. The bell's about to ring so bye," I say and walk away. Everybody stood there, dumbfounded. I just kept walking to Mr.H's class. I sat down in mu usual spot and took out my notebook. Hazel comes a few minutes later, when the bell rang. She sits down and looks at me. I ignore her and keep my eyes on the class.

"What's wrong?" she asks. "Nothing's wrong," I reply. "I know you, Nico," she insists. "Not enough apparently," I snap. She looks down and nods. "I'm sorry," I tell her. We stay silent and keep listening to Mr.H blab about the different types of movements for automatons. Or something like that, since I wasn't listening. We kept going normally, up until Mrs.Art's class. Celestia had it with us. 

"Hey," she says, coming up to us. "Hi," says Hazel. I nod. Hazel raises an eyebrow and I shrug. Today we had two do a three legged race. Some girl called Drew called Hazel and they did it together. That left Celestia and me.

"So, you're Leo's friend," she says. I nod. "You know, he told me some interesting things about you," she says. I look at her and raise my eyebrows. "Can't say," she teases and ties her side of the rope tight. I do the same with mine. When it was our turn, we worked like we'd been practicing forever. We were the only ones that not once fell to anything. We got the fastest time. 

"Nice job, Nico. You're my buddy now," she says. I can't bring myself to smile, just nod. On our way to lunch, Hazel stops me. 

"Okay, what is wrong?" she asks. "Nothing, I say. "Is it Celestia? Did she do anything?" she keeps asking. I shake my head and tell her no. She looks at me carefully, then her eyes widen.

"Are you jealous?" she asks. "You're crazy. I'm not the jealous type," I say, staring to walk away. "Whatever you say," she mumbles under her breathe. We make our way to our table. I have some nachos in my hand, that I'll probably give to Leo, since I barely eat. Everybody's already sitting there. Celestia's sitting on my spot, in front of Leo. I close my eyes and breathe deeply. I quickly open them, because you know…

"Nico. Seat here," says Leo, patting the spot next to him. I sit down and slide my plate to him. "You're not going to eat even one?" he asks in disbelief. "Lost my appetite," I grumble. Under the table, he takes my hand but I quickly pull away. He looks at me and knits his eyebrows.

"You okay, Nico?" asks Percy. "Just great," I say. "No you're not," says Annabeth. I stand up and give her a deathly glare. They all stare at me, confused. I sigh and walk away. Leo stands up to follow, but I tell him to stay. I walk to the bathroom, now it's my hang out place. I sit down under the mirror, to make sure I don't look at it. The bathroom door opens and Jason steps in. He sits down next to me. 

"What are you doing here?" I ask. "Could ask you the same thing," he replies. I sigh and look at him. "I don't know," I say. He laughs and shakes his head. "Give her a chance," he says. "I'm not-" he cuts me off. "You don't fool me di Angelo. Or should I say di Anjealous?" he teases. I put my head against the wall. 

"Come on. Leo's asking for you," he says. We stand up and go back to the lunch room. Leo stand up and walks towards me. He wraps his arms around me. I tense but then do the same. "What are you doing?" I whisper. He pulls away and rolls his eyes. 

"You scared me," he replies. I smile and sit back down. Celestia is smiling while she looks between me and Leo.

"What are you-" I can't ask because it's time to leave. We walk out and towards our next class, Mr.Z. Leo says he'll catch up with me, he wants to walk Celestia to her next class. I didn't want to say okay, but I had to. I sit down on my chair and put my head down. What was happening? I am NOT the jealous type. It's just that I don't know the girl and my instincts tell me to be careful, yeah that's it.

"What's wrong?" asks Leo as he sits down next to me. I ignore him and keep paying attention to the teacher. He grabs my hand. I try to pull away but he grips me harder.

"Please. Whatever I did, I'm sorry," he says. "You didn't do anything," I say. "Then what's the problem?" he asks. I stay silent. Maybe if I tell him, I won't be mad anymore. But then he'll think I get too attached and things my go wrong. Instead I smile and say, "I got a bad grade in Chemistry." 

"I'll help you get better grades," he says. I smile lightly and look back at the class. Then the rest of the day was good too. I didn't see Celestia again. The girl seemed cool, but too friendly with Leo. No, bad Nico, you're not the jealous type. After school, Leo meets me at my locker. 

"Come on, we're hanging out with Celestia today," he says. I nod and we walk to her standing in front of school.

"See you later," says Percy, leaving with Annabeth. "Byeeee," she says. Celestia turns to us and grins. 

"I can't wait to eat you mom's food," she says. "It's the best," I agree, keeping my voice low so they wouldn't hear. Unfortunately, they did. 

"See, we're already becoming friends," she says, and we start making our way to Leo's house. Random people would say hi to Celestia, even some old people that were playing bingo. 

"You're well known," I note. "Yeah, what can I say," she replies. Leo takes my hand and completely ignores me trying to get it off. Too many people from school were near us. When we arrived at Leo's house, we went to the garage where Esperanza was working. 

"Mamá llegamos! Adivina quien esta aquí?" he says. Esperanza turns around and smiles widely at Celestia. 

"Celestia, it's been so long. I would hug you but it would get you all dirty," says Esperanza. "I don't care about that," says Celestia, and hugs Esperanza. 

"Wow, today's going to be a fun day. Leo's most important people in the world," says Esperanza. Leo blushes and glares at Esperanza. All she does is laugh. 

"Now I have to cook for four. Let me get to it," says Esperanza. I sit down on the couch when Leo says he'll go change. Celestia sits down next to me.

"You don't like me much, do you?" she asks. "Why would I not like you?" I ask, looking at the TV. She laughs and crosses her legs.

"I hang out with Leo a lot," she replies with a smirk on her face. "Why would that make me mad?" I ask, raising my eyebrows. "I know about you two," she says. My eyes widen and I turn to her.

"W-what now?" I ask. She just laughs. "Do you know what PC is? Piper and Celestia, matchmaking duo. We're like, couple experts. You can't hide anything from us," she says. I look down and bite my lip. So this girl wasn't interested in Leo after all. Wow, I feel like the most stupid person in the world. 

"I won't tell him. That you get jealous," she says. I look at her and smile. Leo comes from upstairs and jumps to sit between us. 

"Interrupting anything?" he asks. Celestia rolls her eyes and pushes his face. He laughs and sticks his tongue out. Leo looks at me and kisses my cheek. I blush and touch where he kissed me. 

"What was that for?" I ask. He shrugs and says, "No reason." Celestia turns on the TV and puts on How I Met Your Mother. 

"Oh no, you're like Hazel," I groan. "Gurl, who you think show her dat," she says with a ratchet voice. Leo laughs and I lay my head on his chest. We watch it while Esperanza cooks dinner. I slowly drift off to sleep. You know how great that always goes for me. My eyes stayed shut, I had to see everything that was happening. But this time it was different. This time, I was the one driving the truck that killed my mother and Bianca. This time I was the creature that was killing my friends and family. This time I was the monster. I wake up with a gasp. Celestia and Leo look at me in confusion. I run up to Leo's room. I plop down on the floor next to his bed. I bring my legs up to my knees and put my hands in my face. I was shaking violently. I just want it all to go away. Why can't I be normal for once? I deserve happiness just like everybody else. I start rocking myself back and forth. Leo comes running into my room and wraps his arms around me. I start sobbing onto his shirt. He puts me on his lap and tightens his grip around me.

"I'm a beast," I whisper. He turns me around so I'm looking at him. 

"Then I'm your beauty," he says, then kisses me. "That will tell you that you're no monster," he kisses me again. "That will be here for you," he kisses me again. "And that will alway love you," he kisses me once more. This time longer, laying down on the bed. He turns around so that he's on top of me. 

"I won't let you break," he whispers before standing up and offering me a hand. I take it and we stand up, making our way towards the kitchen where Celestia and Esperanza are. It's funny how I was jealous, that I was scared Leo wouldn't want to be with me anymore and leave. But that's not the case. He'll actually be there for me, he won't ever leave me. Silly Nico di Anjealous, this goofy, annoying boyfriend of yours will always love you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having a huge writer's block, don't judge me for these sucky chapters! Please my bunnies!


	11. Award Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody wants to celebrate Nico's accomplishment. And in between, they might figure something out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like a little schist making you guys wait so much! I'm sooo sorry but I really haven' had time or inspiration. But I got all of it back and finally wrote. I hope you guys forgive me making you wait so much!

Well, nothing really changed. Celestia stayed for two weeks, two weeks really enjoyed. She actually kept my promise. *cough* Nico di Anjealous *cough*. And well everything was actually…normal. That's, of course, until Leo decided he was bored. That is never a good sign.

"We could travel around the US, just the two of us. In a car," he says, sitting next to me. We were at his house, watching Hercules. Funny movie, since I don't think Hercules was a child of Hera. Wasn't he a demigod? Anyways, back to the point, Leo was being annoying.

"Leo, just relax and enjoy normal thing for a while," I say. He sighs and puts his head on my lap. I look down at him and give him a small kiss. When we pull away, he has the most cute grin I've ever seen. I smile and caress his cheek. 

"I love you," I say. 

"And you say I'm cheesy," he says. I swat him on the side of the head. 

"Ow, okay fine I'm sorry. I love you too," he says. We keep watching the movie. Esperanza calls Leo to help her look for something, so I'm left alone watching the movie. I start jumping in the seat when Hercules has to dive in the river and try to save the girl, man I keep forgetting her name. After a while, Leo comes back. I'm laying down, so he lays on top of me. He buries his head in the crook of my neck. I wrap my arms around his waist. 

"Please," he keeps whining in my ear. He wants to do something, but when I say no, he just starts being extra annoying. 

"Fine!" I finally give in. He jumps off me and pulls me up. He has a maniac look in his eyes, and I should probably feel scared. He grabs my hand and we run to Esperanza's direction. Leo lets go and starts jumping up and down. Esperanza looks at us and smiles.

"Nico has finally agreed to do something!" exclaims Leo. 

"He wouldn't stop being annoying," I say.

"No, it's because you want to," he says.

"Of course I want to do something with you, but I want to do something normal," I reply.

"Normal is not in my vocabulary," he says.

"It is in mine," I reply.

"Please something crazy," he begs.

"No."

"Please."

"I'm serious."

"Also not in my vocabulary." 

"Leo."

"Nico." Esperanza starts laughing, clutching her stomach. We look at her and I raise an eyebrow.

"Sorry, it's just, I've never seen such a cute couple before," she says when she finally put herself together. I blush lightly but all it does to Leo is make him smile even more. 

"So, I have a plan," says Leo, wiggling his eyebrows playfully. Oh yes, this is going to be dangerous. 

 

Turns out, my boyfriend can sometimes be normal. I'm getting scared, does this mean the world will end? Leo Valdez, being normal? Apparently his dad had built him a little cabin in the woods. Don't worry, the only scary thing here was me. Esperanza, Hazel, and Marie drove us there, making sure we wouldn't get lost. It was fairly small, but enough for the two of us. Only one room, no problem. There was a little living room, with a red carpet and orange cushions. The cushions were fluffy, and who doesn't like fluffy. Wait, don't tell anybody I said that. The kitchen had snacks, well we'd only be here for the weekend. The place from far away might have looked like fire. Leo and I went to the room to set our bags down. The room was dark, a bed in the center with black sheets. Finally, something with my style. We went back outside to say goodbye to Esperanza, Hazel, and Marie. 

"Be good," says Marie, giving me a hug.

"No funny business," says Esperanza, kissing Leo's forehead. Hazel comes up to me and hugs me.

"Use protection," she whispers in my ear, very softly so only I could hear. I start blushing and she giggles, kissing my cheek.

"Why does everybody think we'll do that?!" I ask incredulously. Esperanza and Marie look confused while Hazel is trying to contain her laughter. 

"Never mind," I mutter, and wave goodbye. When they're finally out of view, I turn to Leo who's already running inside. I follow behind him. When we're inside, he quickly turns around.

"I wanted to do something big, but you wanted normal. This is as normal as I could get," he says. I wrap my arms around his waist and put my chin on his shoulder. 

"It's impossible to get a better boyfriend than you," I say. He smiles and kisses my lips. The warm feeling of him with his arms around me, his lips connected to mine, this is what I seriously love. We stay like that for a couple of minutes until we pull apart for air. 

"So, we have the whole place to ourselves. What shall we do?" I ask Leo. He thinks for a second before going to the room. When he comes back out, he has his PJs on. Of course, it had little fire patterns with tools all around. I go into the room and put on my own. Skulls, duh. I walk back out to find him cooking for us.

"I thought we only had snacks," I say. 

"You didn't check there did you?" he asks, pointing at a cabinet on the end of the kitchen. Well, it was isolated. Who would have thought of looking there?

"What are you cooking?" I ask, wrapping my arms around his waist and putting my head on the crook of his neck. 

"Dude, I'm not a chef. So of course the easiest thing I could find. Mac 'n Cheese," he says. I chuckle and pull away, walking to the living room. There was a little TV in a table. Some movies stacked next to it. I look through the movies, to see what we had. Some Greek movies, like Troy and 300. Of course Disney movies, like Frozen and Snow White. And best of all, scary movies. There was Woman in Black, The Conjuring, Insidious, and a bunch more. 

"Leo! One of these days I want to meet your dad!" I say. I put on Insidious and sit down in the couch in the middle of the room, fluffy and orange. Leo comes in a few minutes later with two plates in hand. He passes me one and a Cherry pomegranate cup of juice. He sits down next to me and I press play. Of course, Leo being the scaredy cat he is, almost dropped his plate on me. I told him to hurry up eating and set it down. When we were both finished, we kept watching the movie. I snuggled closer to Leo, he wouldn't stop shaking. And I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Don't laugh! This is a really scary movie," he says. Of course I keep laughing. When I finally calm down, I lay down and close my eyes. And I all asleep on top of Leo.

 

The next day we go hiking. It was kind of disgusting since we were covered in mud and had leaves stuck to us, but we just ignored it. It was actually really fun, since when can you usually go out and walk through the woods. Coming back was the problem. We got really lost, and it was getting dark. I mean, I've always liked the dark, but there were animals out here. So after five hours of searching, we finally reached the cabin. I quickly went to the bathroom to take a shower, Leo came in after I was finished. I put on some sweatpants and a big shirt that I found in one of the drawers. I didn't have anything comfortable that wasn't already dirty. Leo came out wearing shorts and a white shirt. 

"That was exhausting," I say. 

"I'm sorry, I thought we were heading in the right direction," he says, rubbing his neck. 

"Don't worry, I had fun. Your thinking face is cute," I say. He smiles and gives me a quick peck on the lips. I pout, wanting him to keep kissing me. But he just smirked and went to the room. He came back out with some blankets and two pillows. He goes outside and I follow him. He puts the blankets on the patio and plops down on it. He pats the spot next to him and I lay down next to him. 

"So you want to look at the stars," I say.

"I want to relax," he says, staring out at the sky. I gasp and sit up.

"Leo Valdez actually wants to relax and not be all hyper," I joke. He laughs and pulls me down to a kiss. I don't know how a quick kiss turned into a make out session, but it did. When we pull apart, I lay my head on his chest. The beating of his heart always calmed me down. When I had nightmares or saw things, he would just pull me close to his chest. And it all just calmed me down. Knowing that he's there for me, not letting me go. That this was real, not the monsters. 

"I want to give you something," says Leo after a while. I look at him and smile. 

"What is it?" I ask. He pulls out a little box from his pocket. He gives it to me.

"Open it," he says. I carefully open the box, revealing what's inside. It was a ring. It was so beautiful. A black gem in the middle with little skulls surrounding it. 

"You like it?" asks Leo. "It's perfect," I whisper, staring in awe at my ring. How well it fit on my finger, not tight but it wouldn't slip.

"I did it myself," he says. I kiss him and smile.

"What's the occasion?" I ask. "Us," he answers simply. We stay silent the rest of the night, staring out at the stars. When we get hungry, we pick up the blankets and go back inside. This time I cook, and I make Pasta. Yeah, I needed to learn how to cook. It'd be weird when neither of us can cook for our children when we're older. Wait, what am I thinking? Yeah, our future. How we'll see our children grow up, taking them to school and college, meeting their partners, and then growing old. It was far away, but I really desired that future. Before I can stop myself, I ask, "Leo, what do you think our life will be like in the future?". He looks at me and smiles, putting his phone in his pocket.

"Well we'll get married, adopt children, and I'm going to say it, live a normal life," he replies.

"But how do you know we'll last that long?" I ask, looking down. He walks up to me and lifts my chin so I'm looking at him.

"I just do, because we're us. No matter what, I'll never leave you. Because I want a future with you, grow old with you, die next to you. I want to be happy with you, sad with you, angry with you, excited with you. Because I love you and I mean it, because you're the only person that has made me fall so hard. I would do anything for you, sacrifice myself for you, do anything to protect you. That love is not easily seen, but we have it. It's called true love, and you're my other half. Soul mates, like that Greek story. And there's no doubt about that Nico di Angelo," he says. I can' contain myself, I run up to him and hug him. I start sobbing into his chest. 

"I love you," I whisper. When I finally stop crying, we pull apart. He dries a tear from my eye with his thumb and smiles. 

"The pasta," he says. I jolt up while screaming 'Shoot!'. Well, the not-so-nice-word that sounds like that. Fortunately I wasn't late. He comes and stands next to me, laughing. 

"You know, when I made that for you my mom thought I was proposing. She had mixed emotions," he says. 

"You basically did, talking about us like that," I say. He smiles and kisses my cheek. When I finish cooking, I serve our food and we eat. When we finish, we go to the bedroom to sleep. We lay down next to each other and I close my eyes. 

"Promise me you mean what you said," I whisper. 

"I swear on my life," he whispers back. And I fall asleep soon after that. The next day Esperanza, Hazel, and Marie come pick us up. We clean up whatever mess there was and get on the car.

"So did you guys have fun?" asks Marie. 

"Yeah, we watched scary movies, went hiking, watched the starts, and almost burned our meal," says Leo.

"More like, watch Leo almost poop his pants, get lost and do a five hour search for the cabin, Leo basically proposing, and yeah me almost ruining our pasta," I say. 

"Woah, what?! Leo Proposing?!" asks Hazel.

"Not really, but I did give him and awesome ring," says Leo. I show Hazel my ring and she gasps.

"Can I be your wedding planner?" she asks.

"We're not getting married," I say.

"Red and black, those will be the colors," she keeps going as if I never spoke. 

"Hazel," says Leo.

"And who will be walking like the bride? I'm saying Nico," she says.

"Dude! I'm manlier than Leo. And WE ARE NOT GETTING MARRIED," I say. Esperanza and Marie are laughing in the front. 

"Anyways, it was fun and we had a great time," says Leo. We all keep talking about what we did and what will happen in school, how we hate tests, yada yada yada. Your usual teen talk. Esperanza and Leo took us home and later left. 

"You guys are so cute," squeaks Hazel when I finally settled back. 

"You're such a fangirl," I say, giving her a small smile. 

"Don't judge me," she says and we both laugh while Marie cooks food for us. Then the rest of the day was our normal routine. And if what happened this weekend was normal, then I love Leo's way of normal.

Okay let's get one thing clear, I hate exams. So if you're a teacher giving me a test, prepare for your doom. Especially if you're Mrs.A, Chemistry teacher. If you don't teach me enough, expect me to fail. Yeah Mrs.A, if you're reading this then I hate you.

Anyways, she handed back the tests we'd taken last week. I expected to fail, like always. 

"Here you go Mr. di Angelo. Must I say I'm very impressed," says Mrs.A while handing me my paper. I turn the page over and am shocked by what I saw. A 94%. You may be saying 'Well that's nothing', but the highest I've ever gotten is a 63%. Okay, Leo is very helpful and smart. Thank you!

"What did you get?" asks Hazel. 

"A 94%, you?" I ask. She shows me her paper. Hazel was usually a smart student, so obviously got a 90%. 

"How did you get a higher grade than me?" she asks, not with jealousy but with proudness in her eyes. 

"Leo has been helping me," I reply. She smiles and we turn back to the teacher. 

"Well class, I am happy to announce the winner for this test's award," says Mrs.A. She always gave an award to the highest grade anybody had in a test. Of course, I never got one. 

"The winner is Nico di Angelo!" she exclaims. Everybody gasps and looks at me. Hiding in the shadows is seeming like a good idea right about now. I slowly stand up and walk up to her. She gives me the little trophy-a golden man with an 'A' in his hands-and I go back to my seat. Hazel starts clapping, not caring that the others were looking. Then out of nowhere, the whole class erupted in cheers. I was dumbfounded, but I tried my best to hide it. 

At lunch, I sat down in my usual spot next to Leo. He was working on a little bronze dragon.

"What are you doing?" I ask Leo. He turns to me and grins.

"I'm making my own dragon. I'm thinking of calling it Festus," he says.

"Festus means 'happy' in Latin. So 'Happy the Dragon'," I say. 

"My love you're way too intelligent for me. May you please stop talking with such advancement," he says. I roll my eyes and eat a grape.

"You're the smart one. Look," I said, taking out my trophy. His eyes go wide and he smiles widely at me, showing his perfect white teeth. 

"This deserves a celebration," he says. Before I can stop him, he turns around and starts talking to the rest of our friends. They all look confused at first, then excited, and finally 'party mode'. 

"Congratulations Nico! How did you manage to do it?" asks Percy. 

"I bet Annabeth helped him. She's the smartest one here," says Jason.

"Actually, I got a 90% on that test," says Annabeth. Everybody looks shocked. 

"Well, it was Leo who helped me. I vote on him being the smarter one, at least for chemistry," I say. I glance at Piper and she's smirking at me. I feel myself heat up but quickly shake it away.

"Anyways, we are having a party for this awesome moment in which somebody gets a higher grade than Annabeth," says Leo. 

"Where and when?" I ask. 

"My house, around 8:00 p.m. My mom won't be there and the other day she went to the store and bought a bunch of things. But if you guys want to bring something, you're welcome to do so," says Leo. We all agree and keep eating. Or, in my case, give my food to Leo and talk with him. Then the rest of the day went as usual, though this kid called Ethan wanted to fight me, but I got away (thank you lord for the miracles). 

After school Leo and I went to the shop to buy some soda and chips, then we headed back to his house. We arranged the living room and the kitchen for the others to feel comfortable. 

"I can't believe you guys are going to celebrate a stupid award," I mutter while moving the couch. 

"I'm cheesy and you even said it yourself. And I agree. I'm the cheesiest boyfriend on the planet," he says. I chuckle and walk up to him. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close. I put my hands around his neck and stare into his eyes. So brown and beautiful. The maniac glint on them that made me go crazy on the inside. It was impossible to resist this. I brought our lips together and kissed him deeply. He turned around so he was pinning me against the wall. He pushed me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. We parted for a few seconds while he took off my shirt and I took off his. Then we crashed our lips together again. He grind his hips against mine which made me moan. He took the chance and slipped his tongue inside. My arms found his hair and were soon tangled in his curls. And I'm telling you, sparks flew. It was one of the best kisses in the world. But of course nothing lasts forever. Because we didn't hear the light knock on the door. Because we didn't check the clock that read 8:04 p.m. Because we didn't hear the lock turning and the door opening.

But we did hear the gasps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me if it was to descriptive. I'm trying it but I want to make sure you guys like it like that. And sorry again for making you wait so long! Hopefully the other chapter won't take as long. Bye magnificent bunnies!


	12. Now You Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reactions from everybody :o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the worst person in the world D: I was really sick and my mom had to rush to the hospital and ugh I couldn't sit down and write. This was supposed to be posted about two weeks ago

'We are so doomed', that's all I could think of. What can you tell your friends when they find you making out with your boyfriend they don't know about? Yep, you got it. Nothing. Leo lets go of me, but he's careful not to drop me. I don't dare to look at our friends, so I look down. Leo's not like me, so of course he speaks.

"Uh, hi," he says. Everybody stay silent.

"Hi? That's all you have to say," says Annabeth after a while. 

"Yeah?" replies Leo. I mentally face palm myself.

"Leo, please don't talk," I mutter. He nods.

"Nico, you have anything to say?" asks Percy. I don't answer.

"Nico," he insists. I stay silent.

"Nico!" he exclaims. I finally look up. Hazel is embarrassed, I should let her know it's not her fault. Frank looks shocked, Jason looks surprised but it slightly smiling, and Piper you can easily notice she's trying not to squeal. What scares me, Percy and Annabeth have an unreadable expression on their faces.

"What?" I ask, my voice barely a whisper.

"Explanation," he says. I hesitate before saying, "I don't need to explain anything." Where did that come from somebody please tell me. 

"I can't believe this," he says.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asks Annabeth.

"That's not the question you need to ask when you find two of your friends, both boys, making out!" exclaims Percy. 

"Percy, calm down," says Annabeth. She touches his arm, but he pulls away. 

"I just, I can't deal with this right now," says Percy. He storms out of the house, leaving all of us dumbfounded. 

"I'm sorry, he's just a Seaweed Brain and…" Annabeth trails off. Even she looks uncomfortable with what she saw. She sighs and leaves the house, too. Nobody says anything for a while, until Hazel speaks.

"Are you guys okay?" she asks.

"Great, just great," I reply, sarcasm dripping in my voice. She bites her lip and looks down. 

"Well, we're okay with it," says Jason. 

"And maybe they're just confused," says Piper. 

"What about you Frank?" asks Hazel. Frank looks uneasy, but smiles lightly.

"It's extremely weird, I'll give you that. But I'm okay with it," he replies. I'm thankful for them, I really am.

"I knew you guys were together!" Piper finally exclaims. She screams more things, her inner fangirl showing, but I don't understand since she's talking about one billion words per second.

"How did you know?" asks Leo, shutting her up.

"You butt dialed me this weekend, and I heard your conversation," she replies. I feel myself heat up. That was a private conversation!

"Oh, can you not tell anybody about that?" I ask. She pouts, but unwillingly nods.

"And you already knew I was okay with it. I was the one you came to when you wanted to blab the whole day about Leo when you guys weren't together," he says. Leo and I both blush.

"How long?" asks Piper.

"Since the day after my first appointment with Dr. Avila," I say. That was a day everybody knows about, so it's a better date to set.

"That long ago?! Why didn't you guys tell us?!" exclaims Jason.

"Just a few months, don't exaggerate," says Leo.

"We didn't know what you guys would think," I say.

"And we were right to do that. Look how Percy and Annabeth reacted," says Leo.

"Let's not talk about it," says Hazel, putting her hand up.

"Yeah, she's right. Just because Percy and Annabeth aren't here, doesn't mean we can't have a party," says Frank. I smile and hold Leo's hand.

"Are you guys sure you're okay?" I ask.

"Yes! Now you and your boyfriend get the drinks while we set the food," says Piper. I drag Leo to the kitchen with me. Before he grabs the drinks, I touch his shoulder.

"What are we going to do about Percy and Annabeth? And what if other people find out?" I ask worriedly. Leo sighs and cups my face in his hands.

"We'll get through whatever happens," he whispers and gives me a soft kiss on the lips. I smile as we pull away. We grab the drinks and head to the family room.

"Let the party begin!" exclaims Jason.

You might have thought 'Hey, Percy and Annabeth are nice people. They'll get over it quickly'. I don't blame you, we all did. But that is not what happened. What actually happened was something way worse than you could imagine. Remember Octavian and Clarisse, they can't do anything to me. But then there's this other group...

"How could they?" gasps Piper. 

"What's wrong?" I ask. She points at a table far behind us in the lunch room. Annabeth and Percy were sitting with some other group of kids.

"I thought seats were assigned," I say.

"I heard they both asked to be changed," says Jason. 

"And who are they?" I ask.

"Only the meanest group of bullies in the school," says Leo.

"Luke Castellan has come back from the dead," says Frank. There was a blond boy with a scar running down his face. I guess he was Luke, since everybody was looking at him. Percy and Annabeth were sitting next to him on either side. 

"What's wrong?" I ask. They all have terrified faces. 

"Well, you see, to be in that group you can't be black, Hispanic, Asian, or anything. You can't be gay or lesbian, and you need to have a bad childhood or the right connections," explains Hazel. 

"So?" I say.

"So?! If Annabeth and Percy are there-" Piper cuts Leo off. "They couldn't!" 

"What the heak is happening?" I ask.

"The group is called the Kronos. If they find out you're... They thing is they once got a kid in a hospital. He would have died if a teacher wasn't passing by," says Hazel. 

"Oh," I say, suddenly not hungry. 

"Don't worry, Annabeth and Percy wouldn't..." Frank trails off. We look around and see that the whole table is pointing at us and laughing. Annabeth and Percy are smirking in our direction. 

"Percy hates them! Especially Luke! since he had a thing for Annabeth! How!" exclaims Hazel. 

"As long as they don't touch you guys, we're okay," says Jason glaring at them. 

"We'll just hang out with you guys all the time. That's way they won't come close," says Piper. 

"What if I want private time with Leo?" I say. That sounded extremely wrong. "Not that way!" I say quickly so these little perverts don't get any ideas. Piper is laughing so hard her eyes are tearing up. 

"Fine, fine. You guys will have to be at my house for the most time," says Leo.

"I'm working today, so later," I say. We all agree to meet at Leo's house at 6 o' clock. So after school I go to work. So far so great. When I get out and on my way to Leo's house, I take the alley way. Who would've thought they knew where that was. When I'm halfway out, I hear a noise behind me. I look around and see nothing. I keep walking and hear footsteps. There was definitely something up. When I turn around this time, I see about five kids behind me. In front of me there are six. 'This is it' I thought. Then I noticed the staircase on my right. I drop my bags an start climbing as quickly as I can. They all start running to me, all eleven kids, all from Luke's table. When I get to an open window, I quickly go in. I saw the most disturbing thing ever: two old people doing it on the kitchen. At times like these I wonder why the eyes exist. I run out the door as fast as I came in the window. When I'm out of the building, I sprint to the highway. Yep, just a normal day in New York. I'm about five minutes away from Leo's house, so I run and don't stop. When Is we his house in the distance, I start calling out his name. He must be in the garage if he doesn't answer. Just when I'm about to take a right to get in, a hand grabs me from behind. It's one of the kids that were following me. A few more grab me from behind. That Luke guys comes and stands in front of me.

"So I heard you have a little boyfriend. Do you want me to look for him, so that you guys can be together?" he asks. Before I can say anything, he punches me hard in the gut. I gasp for air. Then he does it again. From the corner of my eye, I see Percy and Annabeth running towards us. Still they're far. Then Luke starts hitting me on the face. Blood was running down my face. They threw me to the floor and start kicking me. To my right I see my friends running to me, and to my left I see Percy and Annabeth trying to get pass the others. They wanted to help? Everything happens in a flash. Jason starts punching the guys holding me, Leo the ones holding Percy and Annabeth back. Percy fighting with Luke. Even the girls were biting everybody and scratching them with their nails. I close my eyes and black out so I can't see what happens after. 

When I wake up I'm in Leo's family room. Everything sounds so far away, everything's too bright. When I focus better I sit up. Hazel was crying in Frank's arms, Piper in Jason's, Leo holding my hand, and Percy and Annabeth looked guilty. Well they were. 

"Are you okay?" asks Leo when he sees me awake. 

"Yeah, my head hurts and I probably broke my rib cage," I say like it's nothing. 

"Thank god," I hear Percy say. I turn and glare at him.

"I thought we were friends," I say. He lookalike he could cry. Annabeth doesn't look much better.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers. 

"You should be! Look at what happened because of your stupidity!" I exclaim. Leo squeezes my hand.

"Calm down, hear then out," he says. Percy stays silent, Annabeth talks for them both.

"We didn't tell them about you guys. We were sitting with them because we wanted to prank you guys for not telling us before. Why would we have any problem with you being together? I don't know how they found out, we didn't want you getting hurt. I swear we had nothing to do with this," she says.

"And what kind of prank was that?" I ask, not accusingly anymore.

"See your reaction if you thought we had problems with you guys. But we don' we just sat with them. If you're wondering what we were laughing at, it was that behind you guys there were some kids acting like monkeys to the teachers," she says.

"Please forgive us," begs Percy, his voice cracking. 

"Okay," I whisper. He jumps up and hugs me. 

"Ouch," I groan. 

"Seaweed Brain! He's hurt!" exclaims Annabeth. Percy quickly pulls back, a wide grin spreading over his face. I look at everybody closely. They looked all beaten up.

"You guys look like sh-" Hazel cuts me off. "No bad words!" We all laugh. When we calm down, I look at them seriously. 

"They won't stop there," I say. Leo bites his lips and sits closer to me.

"We'll be with you guys, at ALL times," says Jason. Maybe not the best idea, but something to start with. 

"Now, since you two were missing last party, let's do it now!" exclaims Leo. Nobody argued. We all needed some fun right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did I just write? When I'm sick I don't write as well so yeah. But anyways hope you liked it my bunnies and again sorry!!!


	13. Alone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico is getting frustrated, he can't be alone with Leo!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took a bit longer than I wanted! but not so far away :D

I sat there, waiting for her to speak. In that bright room, and I hate bright. She was taking long to write. My patience is about as big as an ant.

"Um, Dra. Avila, can we talk?" I say. It was a first, but I don't like the clicking sound the pen makes when it writes. She looks up and smiles. 

"Take this," she hands me a figure she has in her desk. It was a dog with two heads, one gold and one silver.

"Argum and argantun, my lie detectors. If you lie, the golden one will bark. If you don't, the silver one will," she explains. I nod and grab them.

"Don't be nervous, I'm just trying them out," she says.

"I'm not nervous," I say. She smiles and shakes her head.

"How are you, Nico?" she asks.

"I'll live," I reply. The silver dog barks.

"How are things with you and Leo? We haven't talked about him in a while," she says.

"We're good," I say. 

"What happened?" she asks. At the same time, the golden dog barked.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Every time we talk about him you say things are 'perfect', now you're just saying good. And that is not even true," she says. I bite my lip and look down. She was right, it wasn't good. 

"Did he do something?" she asks. I quickly look up and shake my head.

"No! He would never do anything to hurt me. It's just..." I trail off.

"You can trust me, Nico," she says.

"I was...attacked two weeks ago. And...I just, um" I don't know what to say.

"Did they do something to you?" she asks. I shake my head.

"Did they hit you?" she asks. I nod and look down.

"What happened with Leo?" she asks. 

"It's just, ugh whatever but don't laugh at me," I beg. She smile and motions me to go on.

"After the...incident, our friends want to be with us all the time. Everybody is waiting is waiting outside right now. And we can never be alone, and I want to be alone with him," I say.

"Of course, teenagers have needs," she says. My eyes widen and I blush.

"I don't want to do it with him right now," I say. The golden dog barks. 

"Um, I just want to watch movies and cuddle with him," the golden dog barks again. 

"I don't even think about it!" the golden dog once again gives me away. I glare at the dog and growl, "Dam you." I throw them on the couch and scoot away. Dra. Avila starts chuckling and writes something down.

"Don't worry, I won't tell on you," she whispers. I crack a smile and thank her. 

"I think we're done here. I'm impressed, really. You never talked, and now you can barely stop," she says. "Leo is being a good influence."

"Leo is being a perfect boyfriend," and with that I leave. When I walk out, everybody is waiting for me. Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Frank, Hazel, and most importantly, Leo. They stand up and ask me how it was.

"I'm guessing I did good," I say. Leo puts his arm around my shoulders.

"Did you talk about me?" He asks. I laugh to hide the blush rushing to my face.

"You're so full of yourself," I say. 

"But you love me anyways," he says, and gives me a quick peck on the lips. That resulted in Piper squealing and Jason smirking. 

"You'll be called the matchmaking couple from now on," says Percy. We all laugh and are about to leave, when Dra. Avila comes up to us.

"Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Dra Avila," she says. Leo introduces everybody, saying their names and pointing.

"That's Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and me, the supreme commander of the Argo II," he says.

"The Argo II?" asks Dra. Avila. 

"His dream, don't ask," I say. 

"So, I was talking with Nico and he told me about the incident. I know that you believe it's safer to be all together, but at home you should separate. If you're all together in one house, they can come and affect the house, which affects all of you," she says.

"But what if they come and they're alone?" asks Hazel.

"It's dangerous, yes. But it's even more dangerous if you're all together," she replies. I look at her and she smirks. I mouth the words 'Thank you' and she smiles as if to say 'No problem'. 

"Okay, no problem. Nice to meet you Doctor," says Jason, shaking her hand. We all leave right after. Percy drops all of us at our houses, except he leaves me with Leo. We go inside, if was empty. Esperanza left for the week to check something out, a car show or whatever. 

"What do you want to do?" asks Leo. 

"I don't care as long as it's with you. First time in two weeks alone," I say, laying down on the couch. 

"A movie?" he asks.

"You're supposed to be creative," I say.

"Let's do matching bracelets and have ice cream and wrote a chariot across the sun," says Leo with a high pitched voice. I laugh and turn to him.

"You're something different," I say. He walks over to me and lays on top of me.

"Or we can do this," he whispers, before closing the distance between us. His lips move synchronized with mine, dam he's a good kisser. Every time is like the first, sparks fly. He pins my arms above my head. He suddenly puts his tongue in my mouth and I moan in surprise. Oops? He smiles into the kiss and pulls away.

"What was that?" he asks. I blush and hit the side of his head.

"You surprised me," I say. He chuckles. 

"Then I need to surprise you more often," he says, before kissing me again. He is driving me crazy, and not only me. My little friend down there, too. And my friend gave me away. Leo smirks and picks me up bridal style. He takes me to his room and closes the door, just in case. Let's go through the checklist. Alone: check. Protection: check. Clothes off: check. My needs attended: freaking check. Now you know what happened, right? We *wink* frickle frackled. 

 

The next day you could easily figure out we did it, apparently. Because the first thing they all did when we met up at the mall was smirk and start laughing. How did they know? Maybe Leo's limping or my hickey. It was embarrassing may I say.

"Did you use protection?" was the first thing Hazel asked. 

"Hazel!" I say.

"Let me fuss over you," she replies. I hide my face in Leo's neck while he's laughing.

"Don't worry Hazel, we did everything correctly. Now can I fuss over you? How was it last night," he winks at her. She blushes and turns to Frank! who is blushing even more. 

"What?!" I say. I turn to them and glare at Frank. He gulps and mutters sorry. I smile and pat him in the back. 

"And don't think we don't know about you guys," says Leo to Jason and Piper.

"Or you guys," I tell Percy and Annabeth.

"Can we all agree that sometimes we need alone time?" says Jason. We all make a pledge that we would only be together outside of the house. Annabeth wanted to make the pledge, so it was pretty cool. 

"I pledge allegiant, to the deal, we've made on this day. To be together, only outside of house, for we need privacy. Still we protect each other, from everything and everybody that may cause us harm. And we'll attend our teenage needs" 

This was going great.

For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup ma bunnies. Kind of a filler chapter ish. But yash, it's getting harder for me to update. Ugh. And I'm sorry no smut like I planed it. Somebody from school found out about this (it was embarrassing) so I'm sooo sorry. It was planed and BOOM the kid finds out >:(


	14. Everything Was Going Great

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or so they thought...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doesn't it feel great to make your friend ship Valdangelo? And you'll probably hate me for what'll happen

"We'll never give up!" 

"We don't give up on friends!" 

"If he dies, we all die with him!"

"We're not going down without a fight!"

Maybe this is it, maybe this is my time to die. Everybody know one can't go forever. There's an end, of course. It's just, I never thought it would end like this. I wanted to die a hero, not a failure. Many times this has happened, but this time was different. Here, there is no chance I'll get out, none. 

"Go Frank, our lives are on your hands," says Hazel.

"This is too much pressure," he mumbles.

"If you lose, Nico will..." Piper trails off. Frank is sweating, my hands are shaking, everybody looks like they're about to scream. 

"I call Ares!" exclaims Frank. I laugh in relief and shoot up my seat.

"Hades wins Ares by 4,000 attack power, I win," I say. Everybody groans and starts glaring at me.

"I am the king of Mythomagic," I brag. Leo comes up to me.

"I am proud and mad at the same time," he huffs. I chuckle and give him a quick peck on the lips. Piper giggles at something funny Jason said, and by the look on his face I'm guessing it was about Leo and I.

"If you're making fun of us, I'll beat you to a pulp," I joke. 

"We would never make fun of you. I'm just trying to picture your wedding, I call being best man!" says Jason.

"Now way dude, I'll be the best man," says Percy.

"I'm Hazel's boyfriend, Nico'll choose me," says Frank. 

"But I'm Leo's best friend," Jason protests.

"Guys, it doesn't matter who's the best man. The important things is the maid of honor. Of course I'll be that, being Leo's best friend also," says Piper.

"No way, the need an astute planner and I'm the perfect one for the job," says Annabeth.

"I'm Nico's sister, I beat you girls," Hazel smirks. And then they all start discussing who will be what at Leo and my wedding. Leo and I just stared at each other and started snickering. He wraps his arm around me and smiles.

"One day we'll actually have to choose who'll be what for real," says Leo. I blush lightly and smile.

"And you're sure we'll be together by the time?" I ask. I know I'm being a baby, but it kind of scares me that Leo and I might break up. Leo looks like he just read my mind. 

"You think we'll beak up?" he asks, looking kind of hurt.

"No! I mean, I don't want to. But what if-" he cuts me off. "We won't ever break up. I won't ever leave you."

"You promise?" I say.

"I swear," he declares. I smile and lay my head on his chest. We watch the 'children' fighting over something that is not yet a problem. 

"Guys! Stop it, I want to do something," whines Leo. They all stop talking and stare at us.

"What do you want to do?" asks Hazel.

"I don't know, you guys can give ideas!" he starts getting inpatient. Leo hates it when people are boring, I mean REALLY hate it. 

"Wanna watch a movie?" suggests Jason.

"In the movie theatre?" says Leo. Man he can be stupid sometimes.

"No, in the dumpster," I say. Leo looks at me wide eyes, not having understood my sarcasm. I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Ladies and gentleman, my incredibly smart boyfriend. Leo, yes in the movie theatre," I say.

"Then why did you say the dumpster?" he asks.

"It was sarcasm," I reply.

"Why do you always use sarcasm?" he says.

"Because you alway ask stupid questions. I feel obligated to answer sarcastically. I'd I don't, it physically pains me," I smirk. He mocks hurt and turns away from me.

"I thought you loved my stupidity," he says.

"I do," I sigh. Walking up to him, I hug him by his waist. He turns around and I catch his lips with mine. I momentarily forget the other are with us, until Annabeth clears her throat.

"So the movies," she says.

"Yup, but what movie's good AND new?" asks Frank.

"My dad works in all of that movies stuff. I bet he can get us into the premiere of the Fault in Our Stars," says Piper. Annabeth gasps and Percy starts laughing.

"Annabeth has an obsession with Fault in Our Stars, she read the book" he says. Annabeth is still out of words. 

"Do we need to dress all fancy?" asks Leo, he wasn't going to dress good. He likes to be 'comfortable'. 

"Not at all. I can ask for a sneak in" she says.

"A sneak in?" says Frank.

"Yeah, we don't have to be with all the famous people and stuff. He can get us in through the back and we can seat in a separated spot," she explains. We all quickly nod, it was sounding like a great idea. 

Leo grins widely and says, "Let's Annabeth-up!"

 

Annabeth-up means fangirl. Annabeth is a hard fangirl, I'm serious the girl is obsessed. Never mess with the Mortal Instruments, she loves Jace. Never ever mention that to Percy. Piper called her dad and he happily agreed. We got in through the back, seating on the back as well. Our area looked even nicer than the normal seatings. It was like a room, with the seats in front, a couch, fridge, and cabinets filled with theatre food. 

"Skittles!" exclaims Leo. I stop him before he grabs them. 

"No way Leo, you get way too hyper when you eat Skittles," I say. He starts whining but I shake my head. The others are looking at us, smiling.

"What are you looking at?" I ask.

"Could you guys be any cuter?" Hazel says, and they sit down to watch the movie. Leo and I sit down next to them, eating some popcorn. My eyes tear up when Hazel Grace is telling Augusts that it's okay. Yes, I'm a big baby. Leo pulls me closer to him, he himself was crying. Actually, there was not one dry eye in the audience. When the movie ended, I ran up to Hazel. She was crying worse than I was. I hugged her and rubbed circles in her back. 

"H-he died a-and s-she w-was," I shushed her. She always get sentimental. When she calms down, I glare at Annabeth, not in an accusing way or anything.

"You could have warned us," I say. She can't answer because she's also crying. After looking at all of our faces, we all start laughing. High school kids ready to go to college soon are crying because of a movie! Can you believe that?

"Let's get out of here," says Jason. We all leave, but I grab a pack of Skittles just before I walk out the door. I give them to Leo and he smiles widely, giving me a kiss and opening the pack. I chuckle at his craziness.

"You're the sweetest, cutest, and best boyfriend ever," he says. Which causes me to giggle. Yes, I, Nico di Angelo, giggled. There's a first time for everything. 

 

On our way home, we stop at McDonald's, my idea. I asked for a Happy Meal while everybody else ordered a Big Mac and those other big stuff that are way too much for me. 

"That's all you're eating?" Percy asks in disbelief. 

"Yup," I reply, taking a bite from my nugget. 

"Why only-oh no," says Percy. Everybody raises an eyebrow. He points at the entrance of the place, and we all turn around. And yes, oh no. That Luke Castellan with his group was there. They looked as mean as the last time. 

"What do we do?" whispers Hazel.

"Let's get out of here," says Jason. We slowly get up and walk silently outside. 'We're lucky' I thought. No such luck. Just as we stepped outside, Luke's group surrounded us. 

"Well well, look who we have here. The homos and their friends," says Luke. Ouch. 

"Leave us alone," squeaks Annabeth. Annabeth scared, this meant trouble.

"So beautiful, such a shame. You hang out with them," he looks at Leo and me in disgust. 

"What do you want, Luke?" says Percy, trying to look like he wasn't just as nervous as we all were. 

"Justice," he replies, before they all charge at us. Jason and Percy take two baboons that came running towards us. Frank fights with a dude just as big as him. Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel fight with the three girls from Luke's group. Leo runs towards two scrawny guys, and my boyfriend once again surprised me with his fighting. That left me with Luke, the devil himself. 

"You disgust me," he snarls. 

"The feeling is mutual," I growl, before charging at him. I punch him in the face, taking him by surprise. He kicks me on the side, causing me to gasp trying to get air. He takes this chance to knock me to the floor. He towers over me, but I kick his boy parts and get up. He's glaring daggers at me, looking at me as if I were his dinner. I hit his jaw with my elbow, and kick him by the side. He grabs a stick from the floor and throws it at me. I dodge it and punch him with all my might on the back of his head. That sent him to the floor unconscious. Hazel just hit a girl and sent her to the floor. Way to go sis! Jason and Percy have only one baboon to deal with. I don't see Leo anywhere, which worries me. I hear a scream and the hair on the back of my neck tingle. It was Leo. I run to where the noise came from. I see Leo's trying to get a guy off him. I run and grab the guy. Then the other one hits me on the head. I fall to the floor but get up. Leo has both of them on top of him, beating the everything out of him. I run and jump into the fight. Leo stands yo when I get one of them off him. I grab Leo's hand and pull him towards some trash can bins. The guys come running towards us, but Leo and I throw the bins at them. That holds them off, giving us enough time to run towards the rest of our friends. They're still fighting, but at least they don't look severely hurt. Leo has blood running down the side of his head, he looks like he might falls my second, but he still smiles.

"You get one, I get the other," he says.

"But I don't want to separate from you," I say. He smiles and gives me a short, bit meaningful kiss. 

"We'll never be separated, remember. I'll never leave you!" he winks and runs towards one of the guys. I'm left with the shortest one of the two, kind of fair now that I think about it. I kick him behind the knees and he falls to the floor. I turn around to look how the other were doing, but then I spot Leo. He's punching the everything out of the kid, yep he's awesome. But then the kid makes him trip, and he falls backwards, hitting his head on a rock. I'm going to yell, when the guy I was fighting grabs a stick and hits the back of my head with it. And this time, I fell down and stayed down. 

 

When I wake up, I'm in a hospital room. My head hurts, of course it does. I recognize this hospital, this is the hospital Rachel works at, where I was in last time I was about to die. And in walks Rachel, smiling when she sees I'm awake. 

"Hey, how you feeling?" she asks.

"Horrible, how as the others?" I ask. 

"Well, everybody's fine, except...Leo. He's in surgery," she says, biting her lip. 

"What?!" I quickly sit up, even though it hurts aLOT. 

"Lay down, Nico. You'll get hurt," says Rachel. I shake my head and stand up, feeling a bit dizzy. I walk out the door, ignoring Rachel's commands. I walk to the waiting room where all of my friends are sitting. Hazel shoots up from the seat and runs to me.

"We were worried about you. Shouldn't you be laying down?" she asks.

"Where's Leo?" I ask. She smile sadly.

"He's in surgery," she replies. I nod and sit down next to Piper, who's crying next to Jason. Leo and them were really close, they're as worried as me. But I can't cry, I can't think negatively. At that moment, the doors open and a girl comes running in. I'd recognize that face anywhere.

"Celestia!" exclaims Percy. She hugs everybody, except when she gets to me. She SQUEEZES me. I wince in pain, and she pulls away saying sorry. 

"How are you here?" I ask.

"I told dad to purchase me the first plane here as soon as I got Percy's call," she says. I nod and stand up to let her sit. She shakes her head, insisting I need rest. 

"You guys were pretty bad, but Leo..." Jason trails off. My heart clenches, but I don't let it show. 

"Where's Esperanza?" I ask.

"She'll be getting here soon," says Hazel. 

"How much until they finish?" I ask.

"They should he done soon," says Annabeth. As if on cue, the doctor, Calypso, comes walking to us. She looks really stressed, and bites her lip when she sees us.

"How is he?" I quickly ask. 

"Well, um," she doesn't say anything. Since when is a doctor lost for words?

"What happened?" I growl.

"I'm sorry, we did everything we-" I cut her off. "What happened with Leo?!"

"I'm sorry, I really am..." she trails off. Tears are threatening to fall out of my eyes. Everybody looks scared. Annabeth and Celstia are clinging onto Percy. Jason to Piper. Hazel to Frank. 

"What happened?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, bunnies. Did you...enjoy, this chapter?


	15. …Apparently Not

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everybody finds out what happened to Leo. Nico is not happy at all about what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe you guys. You actually thought I would kill my baby Valdez? I have a heart! I would never KILL him. Though I do feel horrible for what I did to him, but hey, it needed to be done.

"He's in a coma, we don't think he'll ever wake up..."

Just like that my world came crashing down. Everything is a blur, I was in shock. I felt as if everything bad that has ever happened to me has multiplied all together and decided to attack now. As soon as the doctor said that, I zoned out and stared into nothingness in shock. Piper gasped so hard I thought she would die right there. Jason let out a strangled scream as he clung on to Piper. Percy let out a guttural scream. Annabeth's face went pale as she dug her nails onto Celestia. Celestia let out a sob, not because of Annabeth's nails but because she had well had been extremely close to Leo. Hazel stayed frozen, not moving at all. It would have scared me. if it wasn't for the fact that I felt like dying. Frank was looking down, trying to hold back a sob. Esperanza came rushing in, just to be greeted with such news. She fell to her knees and put her face in her hands. I gained the strength to up to Esperanza and hugged her tightly. Marie came in and her eyes widened at the scene. Everybody here for Leo, and he just, in a way, left. 

"Never?" asks Piper, still in shock.

"I'm not sure, but he's not giving us good signs," replies Dr.Calypso. Then all Underworld broke lose. Jason punched the wall next to him as he started crying, Frank sobbed as he hit the food machine next to us. Percy kicked the counter in front of us as he started crying, Annabeth ran to Hazel and hugged her as they cried onto each other's shoulders. Celestia ran to Piper as they both fell to the floor in tears. I let go of Esperanza as Marie came up to her. Marie whispered reassuring words in her ear as they had their arms wrapped around each other. Though I doubt Esperanza heard Marie since she was crying loudly. Rachel came to me as soon as she heard the news, and she looked bad just like everybody else. 

"Leo," I whisper. Everybody turns to look at me. 

"How are you so okay with this?! Don't you love him?!" exclaims Piper. I don't blame her for screaming, we're all beat up right now. I hadn't cried, I hadn't gotten mad, I was just…standing. Because no, I couldn't believe this was happening. I sprinted for the door and ran away from there. I ran and ran and didn't stop until I got tired. Without realizing it, I went to Leo's 'secret garage'. Only I knew about it, where he'd been making plans for the future. I grab the spare key he gave me and opened the door. The smell of oil and grease hit me in the face like a wave of hot water. All of his plans were thrown all over the place. His tool bag was opened with some nuts and bolts inside. I walk to the wall at the far need where Leo had a table in which he usually put his phone at. Scrolling through all his messages and things, I come across his notepad. He had written a lot in it, and I looked for the last thing he wrote. To my surprise, it was for me.

"Nico, if you're reading this it means you stole my phone and I'll be back any second to kick your butt," how I wish that were true. "But since you're already reading this, I want to tell you something. I love you with all my heart!!! I know I've told you before, but I like to repeat it, just to make sure you know. You're the strongest person in the world, I would die if I went through everything you have. Whatever happens, you better keep fighting. Just know you're never alone, I'm right here for you. You're a special person Nico di Angelo. I've known it since the first day I saw you, I will always love you. Nothing will tare us apart, we'll never be separated. Know that whenever you feel down, come to me and I'll listen to everything you have to say. Now I have to go to the bathroom so this message is over for now. Expect the other one soon! Bye, te amo mi amor!"

My eyes tear up and I fall to the floor. I put my back against the wall. I clutch the phone tight to my chest as I start to sob. In here, nobody can see me. Nobody can criticize. I punch the wall so hard I leave a whole marked. Nothing is right, my Leo is gone. He'll possibly never come back. I knew it from the beginning, if I loved a person too much they would end up getting hurt. Maybe if I hadn't fallen for Leo, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe if he hadn't fallen for me, nothing would have gone wrong. He would be next to me right now. Maybe that was what was supposed to happen. But somehow I feel like I don't want that life, Leo being only my friend. Because he is much more than that in so many different ways. This isn' mine or Leo's fault, it's those kids. They took Leo away from me. But that bastard Valdez, promising we would never be separated. Thinking he could go on his own. Once again, it is up to the most broken of us to fix things. If not for what I want but for justice. The kids wanted justice, I will give them justice. They wanted us to suffer, fine. But know that it is my turn to strike. They will be sorry for making the ones I love the most cry for the one I love. This will not go unnoticed, they think they're dealing with a moron. They'll see my dark side, the real me. They will pay. And I know the person who can help me do this, the one that has seen me on my worst days. I dial with Leo's phone and wait for the ring.

"Hello?" answers a female voice.

"Hi, this is Nico," I say. My voice is scratch from all the screaming.

"Oh my god! It's been so long! How are you?" she asks.

"Horrible," I admit. 

"What's wrong?" she asks, turning serious. This is the way I want her, fierce and determined.

"Juni," I say. "I need your help to declare justice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's kind of short. It's like a "filler" chapter ish, not really because it's very I don't know. You guys tell me. Now off I go ma bunnies, 'cause I'm #2glam2giveadam xD no but seriously, bye :)


	16. You Said You Wanted Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If the Kronos want justice, then they're getting it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy awesomeness I'm watching Soul Eater and it's freaking amazing! Though I have some...problems. I ship SoMa and KiSo. This is like how I ship Percabeth and Pernico (though I ship KiSo more shhh) so where this is going is that there are Soul Eater references

"I'll be there tomorrow when I get my car back," says Juni after I explained everything.

"Don't worry," I say. "I'll call a friend to pick you up today."

"Thanks," she replies. "And don't worry. Your friend will be fine." After that she hangs up. You're probably wondering if I told her about Leo being my boyfriend. Well, of course I did...not. I'm scared now of telling anybody. Because of trusting others is the reason I'm in this mess now. After calling my dear friend and asking for the favor, I start cleaning the mess I made. The hole in the wall, well I'll just say some aliens from the future came and tried to blow up the plae, but I saved it with my awesome kung-fu skills. 

After everything looked presentable, I left and headed for my house. I wasn't ready to go to the hospital, not yet. I layed down on the front yard, looking at the clouds. I smile as they bring back memories. 

\----Flashback----

Leo and I lay down on the park, looking up at the clouds.

"That one looks like a bunny," says Leo.

"That other one looks like a knight riding a horse into war," I say. Leo looks at me and smirks. 

"You have a big imagination love," he says. I laugh and roll my eyes. 

"It's better to think about fantasies, other worlds. Then you won't have to deal with your sucky life," I say. Leo bites his lip and puts on his thinking face. Then he smiles. 

"But in that fantasy world I'm not with you," he reasons. I smile and kiss him sweetly on the lips.

"That wouldn't be good," I sat. He laughs and puts one hand on top of my chest, the other holding his head up.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you more," I reply.

"Nope, I love you way more," he insists.

"I love you to the moon and back," I smitk triumphantly.

"This is war!" he hugs me tightly while we laugh and fight our 'war'.

 

\----End of flashback----

 

I feel a tear slide down my cheek. I quickly wipe it away. I won't cry, I will be strong and get revenge on those idiots that hurt Leo and everybody else I care about. 

"Leo," I whisper. "I wish you were here. To hold me tight and tell me everything will be alright." 

'I'm always here' I hear a voice in my head say. I smile and stand up. Dusting my pants off, I go inside to change clothes. If I was going to do this, I eas going to dress correctly. I think I've been spending too much time with Piper. After I take a shower, which hurt like Underworld since I had so many bruises, I put on slacks and a gray shirt, with a black vest and beanie. Yes, I do need a beanie all the time. With my hair short like Percy's, it's the only thing that hides my face and still makes me look presentable. I look at myself in the mirror and smile. I walk back down and close the door behind me. Walking to the mall, Hazel calls me. 

"Hello?" I hear Hazel's worried voice on the other side of the phone. 

"...Hi," I mumble.

"Nico di Angelo where have you been?!" exclaims Hazel. "We've been worried sick about you! You haven't been answeribg your calls! I thought you'd..." 

"I'm okay Hazel, not in the mood to talk," I say.

"What do you mean you're not in the mood to talk? Are you okay? Where are you?" she asks, faster than you can say 'Fast'. 

"I'm okay. I'll be there later," I say. I hang up before she can say anything else. As soon as I made my way inside the mall, I was greeted by a bear hug. I chuckle and hug back. When we pull away, I smile at the grining Juni. She looked as beautiful as always. Her hair tied back in a pony tail, and a blue suit that fit her quite nicely. 

"My Nico, how you've grown," she says. "You look more handsome than ever!" I flush at that. 

"Thanks," I mumble. She laughs and caresses my face. 

"Thank you for coming Juni," I say "I really appreciate it."

"Don't be silly, you know anything you asked me I'd do in a heartbeat!" she smiles sweetly at me.

"We should head to the office then," she says, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the fancy limo waiting for us. A man greets us.

"Hello Nico," he says.

"Hi Hypnos!" I say. "Thank you for doing this."

"Sure, I did tell you to call," he smirks. "And you did it at the time I told you!" I chuckle and get on the car, quickly followed by Juni. As soon as we were set up, the car lurched forward. Juni and I talked about the things that have been happening since the last time we talked. Juni had gotten married with Mike, the boyfriend she's had as long as I remember, and were living happily as can be.

"How about you Nicy," she asks. "Anybody special in your life?" This time I blushed so deep it was too noticeable to hide. Juni smirked and nudged my shoulder. 

"Who's the...person?" she asks. I raise an eyebrow at her. Usually people ask me 'girl' not 'person'.

"Um, person?" I question.

She puts her hands up. "I'm saying that just in case." Before I can answer, the limo comes to a stop. Hypnos opens the door for us and we get out. The office was fairly small, signs were all around indicating this was the right place. Inside there were twelve seats placed in a U position. Each chair was different, I noted. A policeman stood in front of the gates that separated the room from us.

"Name and purpose?" questions the man.

"Juniper Albarn and Nico di Angelo. Here to see Lord Death," says Juni. The man nods and talks through his walkie talkie. When he finishes, he motions for us to head inside. The gates opened in the most dramatic way ever, which I found extremely funny. Juni and I walk inside and towards the two seats in front of the U seats.

"Lord Death?" I ask.

"Don't think too much about it," she replies. I nod, still uncertain. Maybe this guy is a Soul Eater fan, too. Finally, someone to Annabeth-up with! After a few minutes, a man that resembeled Hades comes out. He even had the white stripes like Kid! 

"Why are you smiling?" asks Juni. 

"Him. Sir, are you a Soul Eater fan?" I ask. The man looks surprised, then smiles widely.

"Finally, a fanboy!" he exclaims. "What are you?"

"Weapon, my own Meister," I say. 

"Wonderful! You can guess what I am," he says. 

"OMG I though I was the only one!" I exclaim.

"I know! Who do you ship Soul with?" he asks.

"It's hard! I ship him with Maka and Kid. It's too much!" I say.

"That's what happens to me!" says the man. 

"Have you seen-" Juni cuts me off by clearing her throat.

"Sorry to interrupt your fanboy session, but we're here to discuss something serious," she says in a professional voice. I tilt my head in confusion, then remember everything that's happening. Soon enough, all my happiness had left me. We all sit down on our seats.

"Why are the chairs arranged in a U?" I ask.

The man laughs, "Oh that. My son's idea." Juni takes out her huge phone and scroll through some things I can't quite see. Soon enough, she had set up a presentation.

"Well, sir, there's this group called the Kronos," starts Juni. I kind of zoned out when she started explaining. The U seats reminded me of a day when Leo and I were in Greek class and the teacher started talking about Mt. Olympus.

 

\----Flashback----

"There were 12 Olympian Gods, yes, but there were also minor gods," explains Mr.Z, answering a girl's question. 

"Is Hephaestus one?" asks Leo all excited. 

"Yes, he is," replies the teacher. Leo fist bumps to the air and keeps working on his dragon.

"What about Hades?" I ask. Everybody looks at me with a weird face.

The teacher was taken back, "In some versions, yes." I groan and let my head fall to my desk. So the guy that gave his sperm to make me is named after a Greek god, and not any god no. Leo notices my discomfort and grabs my hand from under the table. 

"Don't worry about it. I'll get your mind off things," he smirks. I tilt my head in confusion while he just winks. Realization washes over me and I blush a deep crimson. Leo just laughs and continues working on his dragon like nothing happened. 

"I hate you," I mumble.

"I love you, too," he says, pecking me in the lips while nobody noticed. Those little things were the ones that made me fall harder every day.

 

\----End of Flashback----

 

I smile to myself. Leo was truly the best. Once Juni finished with her incredibly long presentation, Lord death stood up.

"Usually I would take some consideration, but since this is a different case," he glanced at me. "I'll handle this. All I need is their names." Oh yeah, being a fanboy pays off. Don't tell anybody I said that or I will go to your house at night.

"Luke Castellan is the leader. The guys that attacked Leo were called Connor and Travis Stoll. The girls were the Jennifers, and the two baboons were Asura and Rin," I say. The man raised his eyebrow when I said 'Asura'. It's a Soul Eater thing, you peasants wouldn't understand.

"I'll have them checked out," he says, then silently so that only I can hear adds, "And nobody has to know if they get hurt by somebody else before the cops get them." We both smirked mischeviously at the same time. Juni thanked him and we left.

"Do I take you to the hospital now?" asks Juni. I shake my head.

"Take me to Luke Castellan's house," I say.

"Um," she starts. "I don't know where he lives." I smack myself for my stupidity.

"Go to South Park, fifth house to the left," I say. Juni nods uncertainly before heading off in that direction. When we get there, I tell Juni to wait in the car. She seems hesitant at first, but I convince her with my charm. I knock on Luke's door, and wait for him to open the door. The door clicks and a confused-looking Luke opens the door. He hides it with a smirk.

"You have a death wish, don't ya," he says. I push past him, ignoring his protests. Just like I suspected, his whole gang was there. They all looked at me and started to laugh.

"Where's that boyfriend of your's?" says Connor, or Travis I don't really know which is which.

"Too scared and sent you?" adds the other. That was the last piece. I close my eyes, and when I open them everybody is on the floor with some nasty looking bruises. I turn to the twins and kick them each once more on their rib cages, making sure they at least broke. Then I turned to Luke and smiled.

"Coward," I spit on him and walk out like nothing happened. When I get in the car, Juni starts asking a lot of questions.

"Are you hurt? What happened to your hands? You were in there a while? Do you-" I cut her off with a laugh. 

"Don't worry about it. Let's just go." She nods and turns on the engine. When the house is far away enough, I hear sirens wailing. The cops had arrived.

"It's gonna be pretty bad for them," mutters Juni, a proud smile on her face. I chuckle and hug her.

"Let's hang out," she says. "We haven't seen each other for a while." I smile and nod. 

After a few moments she asks, "How did you know where that Puke lived?" I chuckle at her nickname. I sit back and relax, turning the music volume up.

"I do anything in the name of justice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending for chapter 15 was sucky. Still this is just for fun :) okay now bye bunnies, watch Soul Eater and Ao No Exorcist! Mainly Soul Eater or no carrots for you!

**Author's Note:**

> If you are reading this it means that you have read the first part of my fic. Give yourself a high five. I'll post more soon. Remember to comment any recommendation below! Okay now goodbye my magnificent bunnies!


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